TRACK legend Nicki Pedersen will make his latest comeback from a career threatening injury tonight (Monday).
The three-times World Champion will lead Peterborough in the opening Premiership match of the new campaign against Ipswich after a miracle recovery from a badly smashed hip and severe internal injuries.
Veteran Pedersen, 45, has vowed that he will never end his career on a hospital bed and will only hang up his helmet for good while he is at the top of his game.
Pedersen hasn’t raced since a horror crash in his native Denmark last May in which he broke his ribs, suffered a punctured lung, chest and back injuries and smashed his thigh into smithereens.
But he has defied medical predictions that he wouldn’t race again and has already been back on a bike and spent two days practicing in Hungary ahead of his shock British comeback.
And Pedersen, who has also taken on the job of Danish manager this winter in addition to racing in both Poland and the UK, reveals that he has never thought about quitting despite the serious injuries he has suffered over the years.
“I do not want to retire because of a bad injury,” he insists. “I want to retire when I can’t beat the youngsters any more, not because of what a doctor says and injuries.”
“When I laid in a hospital bed, a couple of hours later, I have always wanted to come back.
“There’s no issues. I have bolts and nuts, everything in my pelvis and my groin can be sore, but it’s getting better and better. All I need now is to get race fit.”
And he is adamant he will still be going flat out even though he’s the oldest rider in the Premiership.
He said: “I’m a racer. The day you don’t want to race any more, that’s it.
“Sometimes you are unlucky in speedway and what has happened, the injuries, hasn’t really been my fault, they just happened. They have just been racing incidents.
“I do need to look after myself, I’m mature and this year I need to make the start!”
Pedersen couldn’t have a tougher start in his first British match since 2011 – with Ipswich spearheaded by 2017 World Champion Jason Doyle and Russian rocket Emil Sayfutdinov, the former world number three who has been barred from racing worldwide since the end of 2021 because of the war in Ukraine.
Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Jeff Davies.