Danish star Mikkel Michelsen opened up on his battle to get back on track for the 2025 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series as he insisted “I have the strength and mobility I need. I feel good on the bike.”
The triple Speedway European Championship winner suffered multiple fractures when he crashed following a tough first turn with Bartosz Zmarzlik at last year’s OlyBet FIM Speedway GP of Latvia – Riga on September 7.
He returns to World-Championship action for the WWK FIM Speedway GP of Germany – Landshut next Saturday, bidding to repeat the famous victory he achieved there in 2024 – his first-ever SGP win.
Michelsen has made a strong racing comeback, averaging 2.400 points per heat in his opening two PGE Ekstraliga matches for Torun ahead of their trip to Rybnik this Tuesday.
That’s some feat considering the injuries he had to overcome during the off-season. “I dislocated my shoulder and there was some damage to the shoulder socket too,” he said. “I broke my upper arm; I fractured my elbow, and I fractured my heel as well. The extent of the injuries was a lot. It was all on my right side, which is my dominant side. It made life pretty miserable, to be honest.
“I had surgery. The shoulder was put back into place and I have a pin in my arm, some screws in my shoulder and an implant as well, which is going to stay there for the foreseeable future. It will probably stay that way for as long as I am riding.
“It has been a long road to recovery, and I still have quite a while to go. But the only goal I had after the injury was to get ready for the new season. I am race-ready, and I have the strength and mobility I need. I feel good on the bike, so that’s all that matters for now.”
Michelsen admits the long recovery time before he could step up his rehabilitation was hugely frustrating. “It took some time to cope and get over it – the idea of not making progress,” he said. “I was just thinking, ‘ah, I’ll have surgery and in three or four weeks, I’ll be back in the gym and doing everything I normally would.’ But that wasn’t the case, so it wasn’t great.
“With so much damage to the right side of my body, I couldn’t use crutches. I was stuck on the couch for quite some time. The first long while was not fun. Luckily, I have an amazing fiancée, who took great care of me, Alicja. She helped me a lot during the first period because it was kind of a struggle.
“I wasn’t great company for the majority of the time as an active person, who was not able to do my normal off-season training and activities. It was hard: physically is one thing, but also mentally.
“Basically, until the beginning of January, I hadn’t been doing much physical rehabilitation. It had been all about recovering after the surgery because it took a toll on my body and also the shoulder.”
Michelsen admits his urge to get back his usual activities only grew as Poland’s pre-season training camps kicked off in the opening months of 2025.
He said: “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t getting a little nervous and stressed when we were halfway through January. I had a team camp coming up with Torun. We were going to Spain and riding motocross and stuff like that. I hadn’t been on a bike since I crashed in Riga.
“The good thing is I always stay in good shape. Even during the season, I work super hard. When I crashed, I was still in peak condition, which has helped me tremendously during this whole process. There have been quite a few months with minimal to zero activity.
“Obviously with some things, I may have something to catch up on. But overall, I am in good condition physically. The body is working, and I feel good. I still have a lot of work to do on the shoulder when it comes to other things in life away from racing. But from a racing perspective, I am 100 percent fit, I have no limitations, and I don’t miss the strength on the bike, so that’s really good.
“It’s probably going to take another year or a year and a half to get back to where I was before the accident. But for now, it’s all good and I am just happy I am back on the bike.”