HAMPEL'S HEARTBREAK

HAMPEL'S HEARTBREAK

Wednesday 20th June 2012, 14:57

World No.3 Jaroslaw Hampel will miss Poland’s FIM Monster Energy Speedway World Cup defence as he faces five to eight weeks on the sidelines with a broken leg.

The Lodz-born racer sits out the FIM Gorzow SGP of Poland on Saturday night and could also have to miss the FIM Fogo Croatian Grand Prix in Gorican on July 28.

Hampel was pummelled into the Copenhagen air fence in heat one of the Danish SGP on June 9 and underwent surgery in Poznan to plate his broken right leg and repair extensive ligament damage.

The Leszno and Vetlanda man admits it is unclear exactly how long he will have to stay off the bike, but he says his doctors were pleased with the results of the operation on June 11.

"The biggest problem was with the ligaments. It’s always worse when you damage the ligaments because it needs a little bit more time and rehabilitation."

- Jaroslaw Hampel

He said: “The surgery was pretty long – it was three hours. The doctors put a plate in there and stuck the bones together.

“But the biggest problem was with the ligaments. It’s always worse when you damage the ligaments because it needs a little bit more time and rehabilitation.

“The doctors are really happy because they had a lot of work to do – there were so many things to do inside the leg. So many ligaments were broken and they had to stick everything together again.

“But after the operation, the doctors said everything was really good and for the moment, I have some plaster on my leg. I need to have that for three or four weeks.

“I’m waiting to start my rehabilitation and we don’t know how long that will take. It’s really hard to say when I’ll be able to go back on the track again. It could be five weeks, it could be eight weeks.”

Given that Hampel was unable to score points in Copenhagen and will be replaced by SGP first reserve Martin Vaculik in Gorzow, his World Championship hopes are all but over.

The former Ipswich man, who is currently eighth in the standings, can still push for automatic qualification for 2013 by ending the season inside the SGP’s top eight.

But the most important objective for Hampel is ensuring he returns to the shale 100 percent fit.

He said: “The situation will be really difficult with the points when I go back on the track in the Grand Prix.

“But for now I need to wait and the most important thing is to do the rehabilitation very, very well. Then, when I go back on the track, my ambition is to be 100 percent.

“I want to be in very good, fit condition. If you have that, you can sit on the bike and go with a full throttle without thinking too much about injuries. The most important thing is to forget about the injuries and put them behind you.

“When I come back again, I will try to go just as well or even better than I did before my injury.”

Hampel won World Championship silver in 2010 and bronze in 2011 and is already dreaming of joining Jerzy Szczakiel and Tomasz Gollob in the exclusive club of Polish world champions in 2013.

But he said: “First of all I want to have some good rehabilitation and get back on track.

“I want to prove to myself when I go back that everything is good again. I will try and do well for the rest of this season and think about next year later. Now it’s just important to get my health back.”

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