Andy Burns has long since come to terms with missing London 2012.

The Glasgow-born judoka knew long before the opening ceremony that he would not be there, having suffered a broken ankle in the process of winning a bronze medal at a European Cup in 2011.

His only concern now is looking forward: to this week's European Championships in Budapest – he competes on Saturday – with the Commonwealth Games in his home city next year and the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 as more different targets.

The 27-year-old, who has been based at the University of Bath for the past 10 years, knows he must make the most of his opportunities after his injury setback. "I broke the ankle in three places," he said. "I was fighting in Bosnia at the European Cup and I threw my opponent to win the bronze medal. As I threw him, I snapped my ankle and he had to help me off the mat.

"I felt it snap and it went up like a football right away so I knew there and then that it was the end of my 2012 Olympic dream. I had surgery and was out for almost all of 2011. I didn't get too down about it. I tried to get back but once I realised I had no chance, I did my bit to help everyone prepare for the Games. I just tried to be there for the team because I knew that in four years' time, I'd need that sort of support myself."

The Under-90kg fighter combines his sport with studying for a Masters degree in strength and conditioning and was pleased to have the distraction during his enforced lay-off. "If you're just doing sport all the time, it can be mind-numbing when you have a bad session. It can ruin your whole day but, if you have something to distract you, then it can occupy your mind," he explained.

"I've been in Bath for 10 years and I don't think I have another 10 years in me, so I have to put something in place for when I finish judo.

"It's a good training environment and it's good that there are elite athletes from different sports like [swimmer] Michael Jamieson and [modern pentathlete] Mhairi Spence; it's good to have other Scots there. I speak to Mhairi quite a bit; she was on my course when I did my first degree. She did really well last year to win the world title but burned out a bit at London 2012. After that, she just had to get away for a while and I think you have to do that from time to time.

"I suffered a big disappointment when I was injured just before the qualification period for London and I had a long time to come to terms with it. For a lot of athletes post-Games there was a feeling of: now what? They'd reached the pinnacle of competing at London 2012 and it was a case of how do I get the motivation after that? For me, it was a case of, okay, I missed out, so let's go for the next one."

Burns, who once spent 3½ months in Japan to work on his sport, won a Commonwealth title five years ago but insists it would not compare with winning his category at Glasgow 2014.

"When I knew London was out of the question, I just looked towards Glasgow 2014 and Rio 2016 – two massive milestones to look forward to," he said. "All of my family will be able to come, which will be fantastic. The majority of the time I'm competing in faraway places and they don't get the chance to see me but this time I'll be right on their doorstep.

"I won the Commonwealth championships in the open weight class in Mauritius in 2008 and a bronze in the 100kg event. The open group was interesting; I fought some massive guys. It was great to come away with gold and say I was Commonwealth champion but I wanted to win my division. It would mean so much more to win a medal at the Games. The last time it [judo] was included [in the Games] was in Manchester in 2002 and it was a fantastic spectacle."