Speedway legend Tai Woffinden fights back tears as he admits he's 'lucky to be alive' following horror crash that left him in a coma
Three-time world speedway champion Tai Woffinden has opened up on his recovery process after suffering a crash that left him fighting for his life in a coma.
The 34-year-old, regarded as Britain's most successful rider in the sport, is now walking again following the catastrophic incident during a race in Krosno, Poland, in March.
Woffinden suffered more than 15 broken bones — including a double compound femur fracture, shattered humerus, 12 broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder — after being thrown into the air fence at high speed.
He was airlifted to hospital and placed in a medically induced coma after undergoing multiple major surgeries.
Woffinden, who has represented Great Britain at the highest level for more than a decade, was in attendance at the British Speedway Grand Prix at Belle Vue in Manchester over the weekend.
When asked how he is feeling, three months on from the incident, he said: 'Like a broken 80-year-old man.
'But look, the last seven weeks have been really tough - a lot of rehab, four-five hours a day Monday to Friday, you get the weekends off - now I'm back in the gym with Kirk in the UK.
'Was at the gym this morning and yesterday and we're planning on staying here in England for a little bit longer and then focus on the gym work now rather than the rehab.'
Woffinden then admitted he may require further surgery as a result of his injuries.
He continued: 'I got another scan at the end of the month which will determine if I need a second operation on my arm - my right humerus. Fingers crossed I don't, but if I do, I do and yeah we'll just deal with it.
'It's a mindset, you know. At a young age I got my black belt in martial arts in Australia, the second youngest. And I transferred over to Speedway and then won my world championships.
'Everything I do I put 110 per cent into and rehab and recovering from broken bones I have the same mindset and we just get after it.'
The Scunthorpe-born speedster went on to address his potential return to Speedway.
When asked if a comeback in the near future would be too soon, he conceded: 'Yeah,' before explaining that he misses riding his bike, rather than racing specifically.
Woffinden then fought back tears as he simply admitted he is grateful to still be alive.
He added: 'It was a tough one you know, I woke up from the coma and was like I'm done, I don't want to deal with this again.
'And some days go by and I'm like, yeah I fancy having a ride, maybe not racing but maybe ride my bike again.
'It's way too soon. I don't know what my future has to hold and I'm just happy to be alive.'
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Annabel Croft, one time girls' Wimbledon winner, tennis commentator, pundit and Strictly semi-finalist, recently found a piece of English homework from when she was eleven in 1978. It was entitled 'What I Would Like to Do'. She had picked up a tennis racket only two years earlier, during a family holiday in Spain. In the ensuing decade, little did she know that she would become Britain's brightest young female tennis star. 'I would like to be able to… win Wimbledon,' she wrote. 'Before I get to [sic] old, I would like to dance on stage… before I am to [sic] old I would like to get married because if you are too [sic] old you cannot have children… Also, your husband protects you.' This afternoon, we are sitting at the kitchen island in Croft's six-bedroom neo-classical home, designed by her late husband Mel Coleman twenty five years ago. The house, part of a gated estate in Kingston, is a short drive away from the grass courts of Wimbledon. 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'That was incredible,' she says after Aryna Sabalenka catches out Coco Gauff, before the ultimate glory was claimed by Gauff, who Croft is rooting for to win Wimbledon. Croft spent the first ten days of this year's Roland Garros commentating for BBC Radio Five Live. Tomorrow, two of her three children, Amber Rose, 30 (six months pregnant) and Charlie, 29 (about to get married), are coming over for lunch to watch the men's final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, a game that lasted 5hr 29 mins; the second longest in grand slam history. Her youngest daughter, Lily, 26, lives in Dubai. This week, Croft is getting ready to begin commentating at the HSBC Championships at the Queen's Club, as women's events return there for the first time since 1973. Ten members of the women's top 20 will be playing, including Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu. When I ask if she has 'special interests', she murmurs about Alcaraz and Raducanu, the former for being so utterly brilliant, thought of as the new Nadal, the latter because her trajectory has been so uneven, yet her promise never diminished. It has been two years since Croft did the splits on Strictly, reaching fourth place, dancing with the energy, stamina and natural skill that must initially have surprised both her partner, Johannes Radebe, now one of her best friends, and the judges. It felt like every step was imbued with the emotion of her personal tragedy. Mel Coleman died at Kingston Hospital in May 2023, just 12 weeks after he was diagnosed with Stage four colon cancer, which had spread throughout his body; 97 per cent of his liver was covered with tumours. Her husband of 30 years, they married in 1993 two days before her 27th birthday but they first met when she was just 21; she was in Sri Lanka making a TV show about learning to sail – Coleman was part of the sailing crew. 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'He's part of the family now,' she says, and shows me a picture of him lined up with her children: 'Look! He's wearing Mel's sliders there.' Her 1978 A4 homework is on the table in front of us. 'Nice ideas,' her English teacher wrote. It's as though Croft foretold her life, minus the tragedy. 'But there is so much to be positive about,' she says. By September, she will be a grandmother and she has properly rediscovered dance. During the tour, she will dance on stage: 'I don't want to be a professional widow. I understand that a lot of people can identify with what I've been through, but I don't want grief to define me. 'I've wondered whether I went down the wrong path' 'People say I have been so generous with my emotions, but I have always been like that. Strictly was so helpful to me. I realised how much I loved dancing and I've wondered whether I went down the wrong path [with tennis] when I might have been a dancer instead.' 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