New Zealand MX1 motocross champion Cody Cooper is still on the road to recovery after surgery to repair his knee injury.

The Honda Shop Racing Team star from Mount Maunganui will be back in action this weekend but warns he may not be at his best for a little while yet.

“As some of you may know I ruptured my ACL in my right knee back in May and had my surgery a month later, with a little bit of scar tissue growing too fast caused it to start locking my knee up pretty bad, but saying that, the new ACL ligament will be stronger because of the amount of scar tissue.

“So I had another operation on October 14 to remove the scar tissue and had a lot more movement, even when I woke up from surgery. Two weeks after I could now actually start doing my proper physio.

“But with four months of not being able to walk or physio properly, I lost a lot of muscle in my leg, so the goal now is to get it back as fast as possible.

“So now, six weeks after my last operation I am into my fourth week of pre-season training. I am a little behind were I would like to be but am happy to be where I am at the same time.

“Three weeks into my training was a good week as I could pretty much do all my training. A lot of the training has been on my road cycle obviously.

“I tell ya though, it’s good to be back on my dirt bike and in the next two weeks we will be doing most of our testing for the season coming but with a good base line from last year my bike is pretty good.”

Cooper completed the big annual cycle race around Lake Taupo at the weekend with a few mates and his knee came through that test well.

This weekend coming will be his first race back riding at the Auckland Motocross Championships at Pukekohe.

“Within the next month, I would like to be doing as many club day rides I can to get into things faster.”

© Photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

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