Thursday 1st September 2011, 11:28

Emil Sayfutdinov’s manager Tomasz Suskiewicz admits the rider “feels like a train has run over him” after his crash with Balakovo in the Russian league last week.

The 22-year-old’s throttle jammed and he tumbled in heat two of his club’s 61-31 win over his home town team Salavat on August 24 and took no further part in the meeting.

He returned for the FIM Enea Torun SGP of Poland on Saturday and scored seven points, missing the semi-finals on countback. But this was a remarkable achievement given that he was only able to race at the Marian Rose Motoarena with the aid of a pain-killing injection.

Sayfutdinov is sitting out Coventry’s Elite League fixtures this week, but hopes to be back in action at the FIM Dansk Metal Nordic SGP in Vojens on September 10.

Suskiewicz said: “He has got better since Sunday, but he’s still having a few problems. He’s working hard to get it sorted before Vojens. Emil is staying in Poland and doing some rehabilitation.

“He has hurt his tendons on the left shoulder and the muscle in that arm. He has damaged the right shoulder blade and his back has some damage as well. He feels like a train has run over him.

“Emil was riding with big pain killers in Torun and maybe didn’t feel it so much during the meeting. But after his last race, he was saying ‘thank God that has finished.’ He’ll definitely be in much better condition for Vojens than Torun.”

Sayfutdinov is still sixth in the SGP standings on 79 points – putting him level with Jason Crump in fifth. He is 13 points adrift of Andreas Jonsson in third place and could still snatch a bronze medal with three rounds to race. But Suskiewicz refused to pile any pressure on the two-time World Under-21 champion.

He said: “We’re not chasing anything really; we’re just taking it as it comes. Of course if we finish in the top three, we will be more than happy about it. But if Emil doesn’t finish in the top three and gets into the top five, that will be a big success for him. He’s still only 22 and he didn’t ride all year last year. We’re very, very happy with his results this season.”

Given that Sayfutdinov’s 2010 and 2011 campaigns have both been disrupted by injury, many neutrals will be fascinated to see what one of the sport’s great talents could do in an injury-free season.

“We all saw what he did in the 2009 season when he didn’t have any big injuries,” Suskiewicz said. “He crashed a few times that time, but there was never anything broken and no big damage to his body. He finished with a bronze medal and wasn’t that far from second place.

“But when you don’t have luck, like this year and last year, you just need to take it as it comes. Maybe in the future it will be much better for him.”

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