A sports osteopath cleared by a Dubai court of deliberately carrying banned drugs in her system is facing a further agonising delay in her ten-week battle to get home to Sussex.

Tracy Wilkinson, from Balcombe, near Haywards Heath, was hoping prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would decide immediately whether or not to appeal against her acquittal.

The 44-year-old was jailed for seven weeks after traces of the painkiller codeine, which is banned in the UAE, was found in her urine in March.

Under UAE law, prosecutors are allowed 15 days to appeal against acquittals. Mrs Wilkinson could have been free to return to home yesterday if prosecutors had announced they were prepared to waive the 15-day cooling-off period.

But after a meeting with her legal team in Dubai, she has been told no decision will be made for a further "four or five days", campaign group Fair Trials Abroad said.

The group's director Stephen Jacobi said: "Tracy has been told it is likely to be four or five days before she's going to be in a position to come home and it might even be the full 15 days. She remains in good spirits but clearly this is a huge disappointment. She is staying in a hotel which she is having to pay for. The whole thing is an incompetent shambles."

Two months ago, Mrs Wilkinson was arrested at Dubai airport over a passport irregularity. She was thrown in prison when a urine sample revealed traces of codeine and the sedative tamazepam.

It is illegal to possess codeine in the Arab state, even in the body's system, and the mother of two was told she faced a maximum four-year jail sentence.

Ms Wilkinson took the drugs before she flew to the UAE after being prescribed them by her GP in the UK. He later provided evidence to the Dubai authorities he had given her the pills.

At a court hearing in Dubai on Saturday, at which Mrs Wilkinson was acquitted, it emerged she was also administered the drugs by a police doctor at Dubai airport before she gave the urine sample.