Worrall excited for GB return

The 26-year-old Englishman has been named in the Great Britain team to take on Australia just four months after he suffered a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg.

Remarkably he’s been back on a bike for a couple of weeks now, and is working on building his fitness up for the rest of the season.

He’s thanked Great Britain bosses for sticking by him through his injuries – after making his national team debut in the World Cup last year – and expects to see an afternoon of top-class Speedway at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium.

“Glasgow being the racetrack that it is, there should be some fantastic racing – it’s going to be tough,” he said.

“The fans are in for a treat. You’ve got some of the world’s best riders on show.

“It’s not every week they get up to that part of the country and race round Glasgow. Fans should grab the chance to get there and watch it.

“If I wasn’t riding, it’s a meeting I’d want to go and watch myself, because of the line-up.

“I’m really grateful that they’ve re-selected me. It just shows the mentality of the set-up now.

“There are riders they could have picked who are maybe in better form than me – but after everything I did last year and my performances, I feel like I deserve it in a way.

“It’s also what I need to get back to where I know I should be – it’s just racing and time on the bike that’s going to encourage me.

“It’s important to be racing against those guys and building up the confidence I had at the start of the year.

“Hopefully I go there, ride like I know I can and do everyone proud.”

It will be Worrall’s first time racing in a Great Britain racejacket with World Championship leader and two-time World Champion Tai Woffinden, who captains the side.

That adds another element to the occasion for the Scunthorpe and Belle Vue star.

He said: “I didn’t get to experience racing with Tai last year – he wasn’t part of the team – but now he’s back in, and it was clear to see the impact he had on the team and everyone around it in the Speedway of Nations.

“He’s leading the World Championship and is such a great role model. To have Tai as part of it is fantastic and there’s so much experience in the rest of the team.

“It’s so good the way it has all progressed. I got a taste of it last year and I get to dip my feet in again, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Worrall says a desire to recapture the form that saw him earn his first International cap in 2017 drove him on to make a return as soon as he could once his leg injuries – sustained in a crash at Scunthorpe in April – had healed.

He said: “Had I not been in the position I was in – getting the opportunities that I did – and putting so much in throughout the winter to prepare myself physically, mentally and mechanically, I wouldn’t have seen it as so important to get back.

“But there’s so much at stake and it’s so easy to get forgotten about in this sport – while you’re there you’ve got to grab it by the horns.

“It pushed me on. If you’re not doing so good and you’re out of form, you don’t see it as being so important, but I was at my peak at that time so it encouraged me to push on and try to get back as quickly as I could.”