Diving champion Matthew Mitcham says withdrawing from this month's world titles can only help the ultimate goal of defending his Olympic gold medal.

Mitcham has lost a race against time to be fit for the meet, starting on Friday week, with doctors deeming it too risky for him to compete with a troublesome abdominal injury.

The 23-year-old Beijing Olympic platform champion admitted he was initially downbeat at missing another tilt at a first world title but believed it would boost his chances of glory at next year's London Games.

"I was really, really disappointed because I'd trained so hard and been doing all this work to try and make it to worlds," Mitcham told AAP on Tuesday.

"But the initial disappointment started to fade after the realisation that I'm giving myself a better chance to perform well next year by missing these world championships.

"I'm pretty sure that I would have torn it (abdominal muscle) in Shanghai because I was so underprepared strength wise and that really could have jeopardised next year."

Mitcham has endured a frustrating run since winning four silver medals at last year's Commonwealth Games.

He suffered two stress fractures in his spine before suffering the abdominal tear while winning the FINA diving grand prix in May in Canada.

Mitcham tried to hasten his recovery but started feeling pain last week as he stepped up his preparations.

Doctors warned he would risk re-injury and three months out if he competed and Mitcham said he was relieved he could now let his body fully heal with a complete rehab program.

He also felt competing underdone could have allowed his rivals a cheap, morale-boosting win.

"I'm quite sure I wouldn't have dived my best at Shanghai and that sort of opens it up for the other divers to beat me," Mitcham said.

"These divers would have been going into 2012 with the confidence thinking, 'I've beaten the Olympic champion' and having the confidence, whereas if I don't compete, they can't use that."

Mitcham will still travel to China to offer support to the Australian team during the diving finals.

James Connor will be Australia's sole representative in the men's 10m platform.

AAP