Luvo Manyonga is a hard man to reach.

It’s the way he likes it now. The way it has to be.

To find Manyonga takes a speculative call to a distant contact. He passes on another number, who, in turn, forwards on a text message.

Then, a day or two later, an unknown number hums in reply. As the connection is made, Manyonga’s familiar grin spreads across the screen.

Sitting in a plain bedroom, Manyonga runs a hand across his head. It used to be shaved to a shine.

“I’ve grown some hair now!” he laughs as he examines his new close crop in the corner of the borrowed phone.

More than just his hair style has changed for Manyonga though.

Back in 2017, he was doing another BBC Sport interview.

High among the London Stadium’s girders and rafters, sat between Denise Lewis and Michael Johnson, Manyonga told a prime-time audience of his redemption.

He had been an addict, hooked on ‘tik’.

It is a form of crystal meth, that has seeped through South Africa’s townships. Cut with other substances, it is sold in ‘straws’, before being heated, often in a stolen car headlight bulb, and smoked.

Manyonga had escaped the street-corner deals and hazy squats though. His life was long jump now, he said.

The previous evening, his long limbs had levered him through the night sky and landed world gold. He celebrated by falling back into the pit and flapping his limbs, leaving the imprint of an angel and an impression on the globe.

“I was a kid, I went through that and I overcame it,” he told presenter Gabby Logan back then of his substance abuse.

It was a happy ending that was spread around the world.

But, addiction isn’t so neat. Its mess will not be contained by a storyline, however satisfying.

Manyonga’s great strength had kept addiction at bay. But the converse was also true. Tik only needed a glimmer of weakness to regain its hold.

“After I lost my mother things went south for me, you understand?” said Manyonga as he recalled his past two years.

“I didn’t mourn my mother, I took it so lightly, and, in hindsight, I was using drugs to supress it, to not feel the pain.

“I was using on a daily basis. I just wanted to numb myself to the point of not knowing what date it was.”

Joyce, Manyonga’s mother, died in 2020. She had raised Manyonga as well as his brother and sister on her own in a small, four-room house on Machule Street, a sparse, dusty road in the midst of Mbekweni township, north of Paarl.

Working as a cleaner, she carefully sliced up and shared out the 120 rand (£6) she earned each week. Most times, she still managed to find the five rand (25p) for Manyonga’s ticket to Stellenbosch, where he trained.

Joyce’s death hit Luvo hard. So hard, in fact, that his own nearly followed.

“I could easily have lost my life,” he said of his relapse. “I was doing all kinds of crazy things.

“I don’t like to mention them all… some of those things junkies do like stealing, car jacking, house breaking.

“I was like a thug in a way because of how I lost myself into drugs.

“I am glad God was with me and I am glad I am still alive.”

In his altered state, Manyonga always believed he would return to the top of the world. The Tik-induced euphoria told him he would. More dangerously, his past experience said the same.

He had kicked the drug before, then taken gold. One report even claims Manyonga, lured into an untimely binge, went to rehabilitation just a month before London 2017.

“There was a mentality that came to me when I was high on my substances that said ‘you’re great, you’ve done it before and come back with a bang’,” he said.

“I thought I could take drugs again and go and perform, but I was lying to myself. That’s the truth, it was the drugs talking to my brain.

“Kids would come up when I was walking on the street with my head out – high on drugs – and ask me ‘Luvo when are we going to see you on TV?’

“Comments like that made me realise I was missing the point. These kids seeing me, a world champion in the state of a junkie… a nobody.”

While his demons whispered to Manyonga that his comeback could coincide with sport’s return from lockdown, the drugs testers were circling.

After Manyonga missed a doping test in November 2019, his chaotic existence meant he failed to give his whereabouts for testers’ visits in April and October 2020.

Three missed tests triggered a ban. A previous 18-month suspension back in 2012 for methamphetamine use counted against him. In total, Manyonga was banned for four years. He will only be able to compete again in December 2024.

Manyonga could, perhaps should, be bitter.

He harmed himself, rather than his rivals. His drug use is an illness, exacerbated by poverty, rather than a cynical get-faster-quick plot.

At London 2017, on the same night Manyonga won his gold, Justin Gatlin took the 100m title.

Gatlin has been banned for less time than Manyonga, despite the American twice testing positive for pharmaceutical performance-enhancers.

“I understand my ban. It was fair as a wake-up call to all those who depend on others,” Manyonga said.

“Athletics is a personal sport, an individual sport. You have to look after your things.”

In the meantime, until his ban expires, Manyonga will sit, wait and take responsibility.

His mind slips back occasionally to London. He watched Manchester City play at West Ham United on television back in August. While most eyes were on Erling Haaland, his were drawn to the London Stadium’s sidelines.

“I pointed to where the long jump pit, the runway is. It stills feels like yesterday that I was there,” he said.

“Back then people were having so much fun, now long jump is so quiet

“There is still a chance for Luvo to come back and bring up the game.”

That possibility is at least two years away. By then, Manyonga will be 33.

At the moment, his time-frames are shorter. Living in the north-west of South Africa, away from his pushers and his past, he is a few weeks clean, taking one day at a time.

“Things have been tough, I won’t lie,” he said.

“But I am a strong guy. This is my reality and I cannot escape it, you understand?

“The only thing I have to do now is find Luvo. Not the world champion, not the junkie, Luvo.

“If I can find that person, things will be in place.”

Manyonga is a hard man to find. Even for himself.