FORMER Newport Gwent Dragons star Richard Parks will have to wait until at least next week to see if he can recover from frostbite quickly enough to complete his mammoth mountain climbing challenge.

The Argus reported last week how the 33-year-old, who is trying to climb the highest mountain on each of the world's seven continents and reach both poles in seven months, had summited Mount Everest - the seventh of his nine challenges - only to discover on his return to base camp that he had frost bite in his big toe.

Mr Parks has now returned to the UK, where he is seeing medical specialists from England and Wales, but he told the Argus that his recovery has become a "race against time" as he must climb the next mountain in his challenge before mid-July.

Mr Parks must scale Denali in Alaska by the middle of next month because after that it will become too dangerous to climb.

Medical experts have put his recovery time at anywhere between three weeks and three months.

Mr Parks was supposed to leave for America on Monday, but he said no decision will be taken before next week, delaying his trip even further.

He said: " After mid-July Denali comes unclimbable because it's the summer season. The temperatures rise, and there are avalanche risks, as well as other dangers."

"The area where [medical experts] have varied opinions is the amount of time it's going to take to heal.

That's the race I face - the race against time to recover."

Mr Parks said doctors have advised him to take as much rest as possible, and he is considering using an oxygen chamber in Swansea which will speed up the healing.

Speaking to the Argus for the first time since he returned from the Himalayas, Mr Parks said it had been an "incredible feeling" to stand on the summit of Mount Everest, and that messages from home had kept him going through the physical and mental hardships.

He said: "I can honestly say I never doubted my personal ability to get to the summit, but I would be lying if I said I did not have those times where the weather was awful and we didn't know if we were going to get the opportunity to attempt it.

"It was those times where all these humbling messages coming through from back home in Wales made a massive difference."