Cameron Woodward devastated by another season ending injury - November 2016

Popular Mildura speedway rider Cameron Woodward has suffered a season ending injury only two meetings into his long awaited comeback at the weekend.

Woodward returned to racing in Mildura last Friday night after being sidelined for the last two years after breaking his thigh while racing in Poland, and was very impressive in his second meeting back, at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night.

Woodward looked like he’d never been off the bike, and qualified for the final at Gillman as equal top point scorer with British League riders Sam Masters and Justin Sedgmen, but sadly it all went awry in the final.

The final saw Masters race away and set up a comfortable lead but there was a close race between Sedgmen, Woodward and Josh Pickering for the minor placings until Woodward fell and slid into the fence attempting an outside pass on Sedgmen between turns one and two on the third lap.

He was able to get to his feet with assistance, albeit gingerly, but after the meeting he was taken to hospital for what he hoped would just be a precautionary check because of some numbness he had in his leg, but that was not to be as it was found he had fractured his hip and he had surgery on Sunday morning to have a plate and screws inserted.

As the fracture was on the same side as the leg he broke in Poland the doctors had to remove a rod that had been inserted at the time but on Tuesday the doctors informed Cameron that the femur break of 2 years ago isn’t secure enough to support him without the rod so they had to replace it and at the same time do extra work on the hip.

Needless to say Cameron and his family are devastated after he has worked so hard over the last two years to regain his health and fitness.

Woodward was at the peak of his career when he suffered the original injury in 2014. He was the reigning South Australian and Victorian Champion, a member of the Australian World Cup team, and had finished fifth in the 2013 World Long Track Championship, just 7 points behind the silver medalist.

The initial thought about the injury was just that it was unfortunate because it looked like keeping him out of the 2015 long track series, but it was to have far more serious consequences when the thigh bone would not knit properly, despite several operations, virtually bringing his international career to an end.

In the lead-up to his comeback, he told us last month “At this stage my European dreams are over. I’ve had a great 10 years over there and thrown everything at it. I feel I could have gone further but two or three season out is too big I feel. But who knows. Never say never.”

When asked what his aims were for this season, he said “The aims are to try and firstly get rid of my limp. Then I want to get back to a competitive level for the summer. I’m not going to lie, I feel a bit under done this close to the summer but hopefully I can get some more laps in when this weather comes good.”

“The leg is still very up and down. I am able to work all day as a plumber but I can suffer a lot after resting. I am cycling and finally allowed in the gym so I am starting to push for more strength.”

Cameron’s form at Gillman showed he still has a lot to offer and could still compete at a high level domestically, and fans will now have mixed feelings about his future. Because he was so impressive everyone would love to see him back competing on a regular basis, but on the other hand it is heart breaking to see him continually battling to overcome this leg injury and no one would want to see him come back and get injured yet again.

Top pic: Cameron Woodward in action at Gillman Speedway last Saturday night (29 October). Photo by Judy Mackay.