McGee’s biding his time as he recovers from injury setback

Mullingar’s Derek McGee is biding his time as he continues his recuperation from a severe injury he suffered last September that has kept him away from racing so far in 2022.

The setback came at a particularly bad time for Derek, as he had just put in one of his finer performances at the 2021 Armoy races, and he was practising on a minimoto to keep himself sharp ahead of the postponed Cookstown 100 in September when he came off and landed hard on his hip.

Speaking last week, and well into his recovery, Derek said: “We’re heading in the right direction. It’s been a tough injury to get over, with the pelvis, with the socket I smashed, it’s a tricky injury. I had seven fractures in the pelvis area, in the socket and the pelvis itself.

“I was lucky enough to get away without surgery, at one stage I was heading for surgery but they said they’d like to give it a bit more time and see if it would heal on its own.

“They were quite surprised with the injury for a person of my age. They’d normally see it in an older person where the bones had gone frail, but in a younger person it’s unusual. It was the femur bone that did the damage, I landed so hard on the hip, that the hip bone went in and smashed the socket, it was a big impact.”

The accident happened at Edgeworthstown go-kart track, the week before Cookstown, in September 2021, when Derek was training between races on a mini supermoto.

“Unfortunately, I got caught out – if there had been more speed involved, it wouldn’t have been as bad, but it threw me up in the air, and it was a dead blow, all my weight landed on my hip, I didn’t really move (sideways) at all,” he said.

“I wasn’t too bad pain-wise, I was more embarrassed getting an ambulance out of the place, I was sitting up talking, and the lads were thinking I wasn’t too bad, but I knew straight away. I had broken ribs, and I could feel those too.”

Having experienced injury before, Derek knew he would have a lengthy period of rehabilitation, but his first objective was to get back to work.

“I was three months out of work, they (the doctors) were saying it would take six months, and maybe even that I’d be lucky to get a year out of the hip before it would need to be replaced, but I kept going with the physio, did the hyperbaric chamber again, and when I went to the last visit to the hospital (Tullamore), they were happy with the progress and saying I would make pretty close to a full recovery – but it would take time.”

Already very fit, Derek was up and moving as soon as he could be, but to get the strength back and get rid of the pain was the challenge.

“I was on the bicycle after three or four weeks. I couldn’t walk at that stage but I was able to cycle, which was strange, but I was walking after five or six weeks.

“I tried to get straight back into training and get everything moving again, and speed up the recovery. I started on a spin bike, then after four weeks out on the road bike, a little flat cycle, and let the good leg do the work.

“I went from there, but it took a long time to get the strength back, and the movement, because of the damage in the socket. I’d lost a lot of mobility in the hip, and that’s what I’ve been working on.

“We’re getting there, I’m really close now but I’m not going to rush it, because if I get another bang on it, it’s probably still quite weak – and I just can’t afford that, so I’ll keep working on the physio and get it back to 100 per cent.”

Derek has been going for treatment to physio Gerry O’Malley in Dysart for the last two months, “and he’s working wonders”.

His first time back on a racing bike was at a Kirkistown track day in early March, where he was surprised and delighted to be on the pace. “The times were good, but I just didn’t have the movement on the bike, I was far too rigid and stiff in the hip,” he said.

“I never stopped with the training, so the fitness was still there – I could do long runs but it was so uncomfortable on the bike,” McGee continued.

“I was a bit surprised, as I was doing the times I should be doing when I was fit, so that was a bit of a surprise, but if I fell off or had a little slide, I was going to do damage straight away.

“The wise thing was to give it a rest for another while and work on the flexibility in the hip, and that’s what I’ve been doing with Gerry, and he’s worked wonders in the last few weeks.”

Asked if he has plans for the remainder of the 2022 racing season, Derek said: “I’m not going to rush it, possibly get out for a national meeting, that’s the aim, but still taking it week by week, and I will hopefully get out before the end of the year.

“I’m after having a tough couple of years, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting involved in other people’s crashes – it’s such a shame,” he said. “In Armoy, I felt like I was back to my best, felt really strong on the bike, set all my PB times at that track, then a week later to have an off and damage the hip again, and I’m back to where I was. It’s tough to take, but I’ll keep chipping away and work to get back to where I was.”

While he focuses on a return to full strength, Derek expressed his thanks to his backup team and supporters. His main mechanic, Roddy Hayes, will wait for Derek’s next move, while other members of his team are helping out other racers in the paddock.

His main crew includes Jude Davitt, Michael Anderson, his brother Jason, and Derek added: “It’s the same with my sponsors. They’ve been loyal, they’re sticking by me. The bikes are all ready to go when I want to go again, and there’s no pressure from anyone.

“I’d like to thank Noel Doyne, B&W Racing, and all the other sponsors that help me out.”