Double world medallist Dean Macey is confident he can succeed at the Commonwealth Games in Australia - provided he steers clear of the injuries which have blighted his career.

The 28-year-old decathlete, who claimed silver and bronze at the 1999 and 2001 World Championships respectively, will compete in his first international competition since coming fourth at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when he heads to Melbourne.

After missing the 2005 season with a knee injury, the Essex-born all-rounder is happy with his preparations and upbeat about claiming his first Commonwealth title, with Jamaica's Maurice Smith likely to offer the stiffest competition.

Macey said: "They (the preparations) are going really well. If I can stay injury free between now and then and compete like I normally do when I get there, I will almost certainly win it.

"But as well as having 10 events to go right, there are 10 that can go wrong.

"I'm ranked number five in the world, but number one in the Commonwealth and number two in the Commonwealth is ranked number eight in the world.

"Theoretically I'm 200 points better than anyone else. When you bring the Czech Republic and America into the equation things change."

Macey was forced to miss the previous Games in Manchester because of injury and did not return to action until he qualified for the Athens Olympics at a competition in Hexham in July 2004 - his first event in almost three years.

He was disappointed to have missed the experience of competing in Britain, saying: "I missed the (2002) Commonwealths in Manchester, which was gutting.

"The home crowds would have been fantastic. Saying that, most of the stadiums I compete in have such a good British following it's almost like having a home crowd anyway."

Macey finished fourth in both Sydney and Athens, although he could count himself especially unlucky at the former when gold medallist Erki Nool's discus throw was ruled out, thereby elevating Macey to third, but reinstated on appeal thus relegating the Briton to fourth place.

His effort in Athens - when he claimed 8,414 points despite not competing for three years - was remarkable, and Macey admits his feelings about the two fourth places are completely different.

"I went to Athens with an injury and should have really only scored 8,200 points," he said.

"I scored 8,400 simply because I pulled a few things out of the bag. I was expecting to come in the top six so to come fourth was fantastic and I gave myself a huge pat on the back.

"It was a totally different experience to coming fourth in Sydney. That was heartbreaking.

"Mainly because I felt I was in good enough shape to win there."

Now Macey is cautiously looking ahead to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

"Beijing is a long way away," said Macey.

"If I stay injury free between now and then, train like I like to and put myself in the trenches every day, I believe no-one will have a better chance of winning.

"Whether I do or not, I don't know because that comes down to the circumstances on the day.

"To be honest, I'm not much better than anyone else in the world but what I am is extremely aggressive when I train and even more so when I compete.

"If I'm in as good a shape as everyone else in Beijing then I've got as good a chance if not slightly better than everyone else of winning.

"The bottom line is over the last few years I haven't been in top condition."