MADSEN BIDES TIME ON BACK INJURY

Danish racer Leon Madsen admits he may have to undergo treatment in the off-season if a troublesome back injury does not ease.

The Czestochowa hero is level on 47 points with Emil Sayfutdinov and Patryk Dudek at the top of the World Championship, despite missing the Norrbil Swedish SGP semi-final cut on seven points last Saturday.

Madsen revealed in the build-up to the meeting that he had been undergoing physiotherapy for a back issue and was pleased to leave Hallstavik still among the championship frontrunners.

While he’s ready to race on with the disc problem ahead of next weekend's Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations Finals in Togliatti, he admits he may need to seek a more permanent fix in the winter if there’s no improvement.

He said: “I was happy to get away from Hallstavik still leading the World Championship after a tough week, to be honest.

“I came into the meeting and the preparation for me hadn’t been good. It’s confirmed I have a disc problem. I had been struggling with that since the previous Sunday. It is giving me a lot of pain and that was obviously not the best preparation for a meeting.

“I’ll just get a lot of treatment on the back throughout the season and hopefully it can be better. If not, we’ll have to look it after the season and see if I need some surgery. For now, I can only do the physio and hopefully it will get better.”

Madsen admits he should have swapped bikes earlier in Hallstavik. Despite winning his opening outing, two last places in the following heats cost him very dearly there.

“A positive thing is I won my last heat,” he said. “Of course that gives you some confidence after the zeros I scored. In going on to win the last heat, I proved to myself that I can still race.

“I swapped the bike after three races. I should have done that the heat before. I know the ignition broke on the first bike. Maybe it did that after my second run.

“Looking back, we should have changed the bike after my second race, but that’s how it is. I can’t do anything about that.”

Madsen missed out on the chance to get a feel for the tight and technical Hallstavik track when free practice and qualifying were cancelled on the Friday afternoon due to heavy rain.

He admits going into the meeting cold didn’t help his cause. He said: “Obviously we don’t have too much experience of this track in terms of what to do with the setup.

“That’s why I was a little bit disappointed we couldn’t practice on the Friday. I struggled a little bit with setup and the bikes. I made maybe a few mistakes on the track, which cost me a few points.

“If I hadn’t done that, it would have looked different. I would have gone into the semi and maybe I could have qualified for the final. I can’t be in the final every time, though!”