LYING on the track in a tangled mess, Tai Woffinden admits the last thing he remembers is people crying at the extent of his injuries.
The five-times world champion blacked out minutes after the horror crash where he sustained over 15 BROKEN BONES following a high-speed pile-up in Krosno, Poland in late March.
Great Britain ace Woffy, 34, was given an emergency helicopter airlift to hospital as fears grew over his survival because of chest injuries and a huge loss of blood.
He was then put in a medically induced coma after three lengthy major operations.
But two months after fighting for his life, Woffinden is now walking and eight weeks ahead in his gruelling recovery plan in rehab.
In his first interview since the incident, he reveals how he heard the femur bone in his leg snap on impact and that the first people on the scene were in tears on seeing his condition because his arms were “pointing in the wrong direction”.
He admitted: “I remember everything. In the race that I crashed I made a pretty decent start, so I blipped the throttle a little bit coming into the corner.
“The junior rider off gate one drove over the kerb, ran into the guy that was off gate two, who then collected me.
“As I got collected, as you normally do, you drop it on the side and slide towards the fence. And then while sliding across the track, my bike hit the APD (airfence) first, which lifted it up probably about a metre.
“And the moment I saw that lift, I just went, ‘oh f***’. And then I hit the fence, I heard my femur snap.
“It’s almost like if you’re underwater and you snap a tree branch.
“I then was laid on the track. I remember looking up and seeing everybody around me. The team manager’s face looked like he had seen a ghost.
“One person was crying looking at my body. My arms were pointing all in the wrong direction. My left shoulder was dislocated, pointing upwards.
“My right humerus was shattered at the bottom. My elbow was dislocated and my elbow was broken.
“I actually couldn’t see my hands when I was laying on the track because they were both pointing up.
“So I’m sat there saying, ‘give me some meds’. I was saying ‘bol, bol, bol’ which means pain in Polish just to make sure they knew what I was talking about.
“I don’t know if I passed out from the amount of Fentanyl they’d given me or the amount of blood that I’d lost.”
Woffinden, Britain’s greatest-ever rider, had a double compound right femur fracture, broken back, right humerus compound fracture, dislocated and smashed right elbow, 12 broken ribs,punctured lung, left broken shoulder blade and dislocated left shoulder.
He added: “I remember the blades of the helicopter, the noise of it starting to take off. And then the next thing, I’m in a coma.
“There were so many injuries, I probably wouldn’t have been able to be awake and deal with the injuries. One of the operations was 12 hours long and I had multiple blood transfusions.
“I thought a coma would have been a pleasant sleep. It was quite the opposite. It was the worst thing I’d ever experienced. It was quite scary at times. I was on sedatives and painkillers and antibiotics.
“I was hallucinating, I was dreaming and having nightmares. Normally you have a nightmare and you wake up. Well, I couldn’t wake up.
“I dealt with some wild s***. I woke up from the coma, and everything that I’d dreamt, I believed it was real. And my wife Faye was like, ‘mate, that didn’t happen’. I was getting angry with Faye because she wasn’t believing me.”
Woffinden refused to be drawn on what the future holds in speedway, his only focus is on full recovery from the huge toll of injuries.
He added: “There’s so many variables. We need to give it that extra month to heal and then have the CT scan so we can really see what’s going on from all different angles.
“I might need another operation on my humerus in my arm because it was shattered in 27 places. If the metalwork hasn’t helped it knit together, I’ll need another op.
“I’ve done everything I possibly can. I’ve done four to five hours a day in rehab since I left the hospital. My progress is on another level.
“It’s ridiculous. Where I’m at given the injuries is f*****g phenomenal.
“I would like to ride my bike again, whether that’s competitive or not or just practice, who knows?
“But I just make micro personal goals to keep reaching. Only my recovery comes first.”
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SUMMER is nearly here and many people are looking to get their gardens looking beautiful in time for BBQs and sitting out in the sun.
One woman shared how she got rid of her bland concrete tiles and replaced them with a gorgeous £6 Wickes buy.
Instead of forking out for expensive decking, she decided to lay decking planks down in her back garden, and then she added stones around it for a pretty effect.
Rachel Clutterham told Fabulous: “My garden was worn, unlevel and a trip hazard.
“I looked around for ideas and inspiration for what could be achieved on a small budget and could find nothing.
“The idea came about when Wickes delivered the decking planks and they were just laid on the ground!
“It all came from there, and so I came up with a design I liked and simply glued them down and added shingle to fill in the gaps!
“It had brightened up the garden no end.
“And the plus side of using the Easihold is that it leaves them with a lovely shine.”
She then spent a further £60.60 on one more decking plank which was sawn to make stepping for garden gate end.
She also added four more bags of shingle to lay over the slabs and then £35.00 on Easihold to seal it all.
She added: “Just a few little bits to complete at the end of it and it’s all done for £300.
“Not everyone’s style but it’s cheap, tidy and manageable for me.
“Apart from that, the dogs and myself are happy.”
Rachel said she was “fed up” of seeing “budget garden posts that weren’t realistic for a lot of people”, and decided to share her idea on Facebook, where it has racked up nearly 5,000 likes.
One person praised her saying: “This looks fabulous, do-able and affordable.”
Another added: “Very unique, I love it.”
And a third commented: “It’s just lovely, well done and a bonus that was done on a tight budget.”
Rachel replied, saying: “Thank you everyone for all of your lovely comments.
“Even if it helps one person with an idea for their garden I am thrilled.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a budget garden and I’m happy with it.”
Total cost: £238.00