"Sooner or later I will be back" - Michael Valgren keen on salvaging career following horrific injury

Michael Valgren has suffered a career-threatening injury at La Route d'Occitanie earlier this year. Four months onwards, he is still battling to return to the road, but is going all-out to be able to save his career.

"I love my job, and I will do anything I can to get back to it," Valgren said in a press release issued by EF Education-EasyPost. "I really don’t want to end my career with an injury. I always want to say I will stop when I don’t want to do this any more, and I am absolutely not ready to stop. I love my life. Not being on the bike, not being a bike rider, is something that I just can’t think about at the moment."

Valgren crashed during a descent on the fourth day of the French race. He had admitted that he took too many risks, as he was coming back into form and was trying to secure a result ahead of the Tour de France. As a result he broke his pelvis, dislocated a hip and damaged two tendons in a knee. He had also talked about the possibility of suffering from necrosis and requiring a hip replacement.

However since the last update, things have seemingly improved for the Dane, albeit slightly. "I was still doing exercises, but those exercises at the physio are more just about pushing through pain. It’s not a nice feeling. I am trying to get through it in the best possible way, but it is not like I get a big kick out of it. I really miss getting a good sweat on and getting my heart rate up," he said regarding his current routine. 

"The good thing about these injuries is that the best thing that you can do to recover from them is go on the bike, and that is my job, so the sooner I could get on the bike the better," he added however, and has mentioned that he is able to pedal again, although naturally with many restrictions due to the sensitivity of his knee problems.

"I am finally back on the good path. I have much more range of motion in my knee. I can finally do a whole pedal stroke, so now things are moving forward again. I’ll be honest. When I’m going to be at full strength is hard to say but, I am in really good hands and I am working hard every day, so sooner or later I will be back," he concluded.