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MADSEN: KNEE INJURY WON'T SLOW ME DOWN
22/02/2022
Danish racer Leon Madsen insists a niggling knee injury won’t slow his preparations for the 2022 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series.
The Czestochowa and Brovst star finished seventh in the 2021 Speedway GP World Championship in a season that was badly hampered by stretched knee ligaments, suffered in a crash at the Speedway European Championship round in Bydgoszcz in June.
Madsen ended the year on a high by bagging 38 points over two days of the FIM Speedway of Nations Final in Manchester – a score matched only by Poland’s Bartosz Zmarzlik.
The former world No.2 admits he took some time off after winning bronze with his country at the National Speedway Stadium.
While he admits he can still feel the knee injury, Madsen won’t allow it to get in the way of his 2022 build-up.
He said: “I relaxed for some time after Manchester because I had been flat-out for a few years since I won the European Championship in 2018. I really needed to take a break and charge the batteries. That was nice.
“But now I am back at full speed, training every day and feeling good. I feel back in shape and I will soon be ready for the new season.
“To be honest, I am still struggling with the knee. It takes some time to get over the injury and I know I am going to feel the injury this year also.
“It is slowly getting better and better. I am just not over it yet though; it is really annoying. There is not much I can do; I have to train and get ready for the new season. The injury takes the time it needs unfortunately.
“The thing is, at this stage, I have to push hard and do a lot of training. It is not ideal for the knee. But I have to do it to get ready for the season. It will prolong the recovery of the knee, but that’s something I just have to accept.”
Madsen admits it’s not a problem that can be fixed by surgery. He explained: “It’s just the ligaments inside the knee. They are a little bit stretched, so it’s not really something you can operate on. I also have a little bit of fluid on the knee.
“It is very painful at some moments and at others it hurts a bit less. It goes up and down. I think it should be okay as long as I don’t have any new twists on it or any bad crashes.”
