Defending 100-meter champion Magnusssen out of swim worlds

SYDNEY (AP) Defending 100-meter freestyle champion James Magnussen of Australia will miss the July world swimming championships in Kazan, Russia, due to left shoulder surgery.

Swimming Australia said in a statement Sunday that doctors discovered significant damage to Magnussen's sub-scapular region in his left shoulder which has caused it to lose 70 percent of its strength.

It is likely that Magnussen, the 2012 London Olympic silver medalist and 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, will undergo the operation in Melbourne in the first week of June.

He was expected to begin recovery and rehabilitation soon after to prepare him for the Rio Olympics in August 2016.