Little more than a week out from the Australian Swimming Championships in Adelaide, Ian Thorpe says the most likely result of his comeback will be failure.

The five-time Games gold medallist, aiming to qualify for a third Olympics, is preparing for the 2012 London qualifying event in Perth with local mentor Bernie Mulroy and national coach Leigh Nugent.

But the 29-year-old has reiterated he doesn’t have high expectations of making the team after modest results in lead-up events so far.

“The most realistic outcome of this is that I will most likely fail,” he told Network Ten.

“All of the expectation, that desire to see me do well, it exists for me in a way that it doesn’t exist for other people.”

Thorpe will contest the 100m and 200m freestyle at the championships which start in Adelaide next Thursday.

His most likely path to the Games team is a top-six finish in the 200m event, which should be enough to get him into the relay squad for London.

But Thorpe said he might have left his run too late.

“I wish I had another six months to do this,” Thorpe said. “I wish I had more time to do it.”

“I have to be swimming well. I have to be swimming fast as well in both of my races.”

But failure to get to London might not be the end of the road for Thorpe who says he’ll stick around in the sport for a little while yet.

“It will probably be the last time I will be able to do this so I want to be able to make the most of it,” Thorpe said.

“So I’ll probably swim for at least a year or two after the Games.”