Cullen Jones has taken inspiration from Roy-Allan Burch’s determination to qualify for the Rio Olympics as the Bermudian continues his year-long fightback from a devastating injury.

The pair of SwimMAC Carolina swimmers were playing basketball prior to a training session when Burch’s legs gave way as he prepared to dunk the ball, rupturing his patella tendons in both knees.

Jones, a two-times Olympic gold medal-winner, said watching a good friend and team-mate have his world turned upside down in a split second had been a “wake-up call” and reminded him of the precarious nature of top-level sport.

“We were both dunking the ball and having a good time, when something like that happens it makes time stand still,” said Jones, who spent last week training in Bermuda with Burch and the SwimMAC Carolina Elite Team.

“At first I thought he had hurt his back as he almost landed on his neck, but he was like, ‘no, it’s my knees, my knees’.

“Man, let me tell you, it didn’t happen to me but it really woke me up.

“You just hate to watch a friend go through all that and everything has a different perspective for me now.”

It has been a long, slow recovery for Burch, who spent almost three months in a wheelchair, with the island’s top swimmer contemplating calling it quits during the darkest days of his painstaking recovery.

This week he makes his long-awaited return to the pool at the Canadian Trials in Toronto, where he will continue his quest to qualify for a third straight Olympics.

“I think there was a concrete moment when Roy had a decision to either hang up the goggles or continue to press on,” said Jones, the first African-American to hold a world record as part of the United States 4x100 free relay team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I can’t stress enough how proud I am of him. He never gave up and even came to practice sessions in his wheelchair.

“He would go to the weights room and they would prop his legs up so he could do upper-body work.

“To watch him reach each small milestone as he gets back to being the swimmer we know he can be is unbelievable.

“It’s inspiring to watch his recovery but there are many times when you have to say, ‘come on Roy, stop, back up, chill out’.”

It was shortly after the 2008 Olympics when Burch first approached Jones, a fellow freestyle sprint swimmer, about the possibility of them training together.

The pair have known each other since they were teenagers in New Jersey when Burch competed for Peddie School against Jones’s Saint Benedict’s.

Jones said he had witnessed a considerable improvement in Burch’s performances in the month’s prior to his horror injury and will be willing him on as he continues to reach peak fitness.

“Right before the injury, I don’t know what sort of change had happened in his mind, but Roy was starting to make some big, big strides,” Jones added.

“His times were getting faster and he was lifting more weights and so many things were going right for him.”

Although he has refused to rule out making a bid for Tokyo 2020, at 32 Jones knows this summer’s Olympics could be his last.

Should Rio be his swansong, Jones would dearly love to have Burch competing alongside him.

“We don’t yet know how far he will get but what he’s done already is remarkable,” Jones said. “If this is my last Olympics it would be awesome to have Roy there.”