Olympic hopeful Tyler Butterfield is still suffering from the shin-splint problem which plagued him towards the end of the last triathlon season.The stress reaction injury dashed his chances of a top ten finish in the Hawaii Ironman last October and has prevented him from training properly for this season’s opening World Cup race.He admits the slow healing injury has been a source of frustration but hopes to test out his troublesome right tibia at the Moolooba Triathlon in Australia on March 27.“It’s been a slower start to the season than I would have liked,” said the 28-year-old, who is awaiting confirmation from the International Triathlon Union that he has been granted entry into the race.“It’s a stress injury where the muscles become tight and pull off the bone. It’s just about getting it right and then slowly building the running back up. I’m not doing any running at the moment but I am aqua running in the swimming pool and doing stuff on the cross-trainer as well as all of the swimming and cycling.”Ever the optimist, Butterfield believes now is as good a time as any to be injured with the London Olympics his main objective still a year-and-a-half away. Even if he doesn’t regain full fitness until early summer he is confident of earning enough points to qualify for the Olympics by the end of the season.“I’m trying to pick the positives out of it and it’s better to be injured now than next winter,” said Butterfield, who won a bronze medal at last year’s CAC Games. “I’ve been pretty lucky with injuries so far in my career so I can’t complain too much.“The Olympics is my main goal and even if I don’t get fully fit until June it’s no big deal. I can still earn enough points to qualify for the Olympics by the end of the season. That’s important because you don’t want to be chasing points for the Olympics next season. That’s when you want to be picking and choosing your races.”Colorado-based Butterfield will remain Down Under until June where he will train with his former housemate, and top Australian triathlete, Brad Kahlefeldt the winner of last year’s Moolooba Triathlon. He then plans to do a triathlon in Japan, injury permitting, before making his way back through Europe where he plans to compete in several races before heading home to the US.“I’ll be training in Australia with my old housemate Brad Kahlefeldt. He’s been on the podium three-time in the World Championships and will be doing the Moolooba Triathlon. It will be good to train with him in the warm weather down there.”Butterfield (pictured) admits he is merely looking to get some mileage under his belt in Moolooba and stressed that he is not looking to be competitive considering his lack of training.“I won’t be doing much running before (the Moolooba Triathlon) so I’m not expecting anything at all because of the lack of miles,” he said. “To be honest if I ran too well I could be in danger of hurting myself so it’s just a case of getting used to the race style again. I’ve been doing a lot of swimming and that’s my weakest part so it will be interesting to see if I’ve improved.”Other than his lingering injury, Butterfield is enjoying life. Two months ago he became a father when his wife, former professional cyclist, Nikki Egyed gave birth to their daughter Savana, who Butterfield said was not giving the couple too many sleepless nights.“Savana sleeps really well so I’m getting plenty of rest. Life’s going great at the moment, we’ve also just moved house to a higher altitude which helps with the training and the only blip is my injury,” he said.