Craig Mottram will make a much-anticipated return to his favoured 5000m event on Thursday night against one of the strongest fields ever assembled in Australia.

After a long injury-enforced layoff, the national record holder will be at the start-line at Olympic Park alongside the likes of 2007 world champ Bernard Lagat, fellow Americans Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp and Australians Collis Birmingham, Ben St Lawrence and Dave McNeill.

Mottram is realistic enough to know he won't be doing anything extraordinary in only his second 5000m race in two and a half years. But after pulling up well from a training session on Monday night, the 2005 world championships bronze medallist and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games runner-up is ready to go.

"I want to run," he told AAP on Tuesday after deciding to contest his pet event, rather than the 1500m, at the Melbourne Track Classic.

"I don't have any expectations to be honest.

"I'll finish midfield somewhere and enjoy the opportunity to get back.

"It's obviously one of the last chances to run at Olympic Park, I've had a good history racing there so I'll make the most of it.

"There won't be a negative out of it for me, just to get back out on the track and race a 5K early in 2011 is a win in itself.

"You've got to start somewhere and for me the season will start on Thursday."

Mottram, 30, doesn't expect to threaten the world championships A qualifying standard of 13 minutes 20 seconds on Thursday, figuring he will be in much better shape if officials can organise another 5000m race in Australia in late April before he heads overseas.

After finally overcoming a longstanding Achilles injury, he is fit, if not yet race-fit. And the only way to fix that is to get back out there and compete.

"I know what shape I'm in from some of the sessions I've been doing," said Mottram, who set the national record of 12:55.76 back in 2004.

"If I get anywhere near 13:30 I think that will be a reasonable result for me.

"... the only way I wouldn't have run the 5K is if I thought there was any risk of getting sore or missing training from doing it.

"I felt alright on the track last night after pulling on the spikes for the first time in a long time.

"I woke up this morning feeling pretty good, had a massage and thought I might as well have a go."

The 5000m at Olympic Park doubles as the national title and the official qualifying event for the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, starting in late August.

John Salvado
AAP