Dean Ferris grabbed hold of a golden opportunity to race for the Red Bull KTM team in the US while contesting the World Motocross Championship last year. After playing it fairly safe over the opening rounds of the West Coast AMA Supercross Championship, the 23-year-old returned home during a break in the series and dislocated his wrist in a practice crash. In a split second his dream of a 2014 American Pro Motocross Championship went up in smoke. But things are looking up; Ferris is due back on the bike any day and flew back to the US this morning. We caught up with him as he packed his bags last night to find how things are tracking.

Image: Simon Cudby.

Deano, it sounds like you’re almost back on the horse. How’s the recovery going?

It’s just been three months, but I’m ahead of schedule. I can use the wrist again now and it’s healed up perfectly. The doctor said I have more movement in my wrist than most people who have recovered from something like this, and gave me the all-clear to start riding again. I was that excited on the news I was woo-hooing through the hospital and wanted to high-five everyone I saw, even if I didn’t know them!

So how did you injure your wrist anyway?

I was only here for a few weeks during the West Coast championship break, and was practising one day but hit a jump wrong and went over the bars. I landed on my wrist and dislocated it. The thing with wrists is they aren’t like shoulders where you can just pop them back in. It has to be repositioned and the ligaments repaired so it stays in. I was lucky that I went into surgery the next day, as it’s one of those things that you can’t wait on, or it does a lot of damage.

What was the first thing that went through your head when you first looked down and saw you’d dislocated it?

There were a few swear words, followed by some mathematics on how long it’d take me to get back on the bike. If it had been broken I would’ve been able to make the start of the championship, but a dislocation is a little worse than that.

Obviously there would’ve been some tough days for you early on in the recovery process. How did you try and stay positive?

I guess I tried to find the bright side of things. I’d rather be overseas for the rest of my career, so I put all of my focus into my physical training. I was so determined to be 100 percent the best I can be as soon as I got back on the bike, so I could ‘give it horns’ straight away. The first month or so after I got injured I didn’t do much and I slept a lot, but over the past two months I’ve been training with my trainer Guy Andrews day-in and day-out and running so much I could almost turn pro [laughs]. That’s brought me up to now and I’m as prepared as I can be for when I get back on the bike.

We heard you and Guy also did an adventure race last weekend too.

Yeah it was an unofficial, fun event in Brisbane, but I took it seriously as I’ve been training hard and we won it. It was the first one I’ve done and I absolutely loved it. I can see myself doing a lot more of them further down the track when my racing career winds up.

Image: Simon Cudby.

So you’re heading back to the States tomorrow. What are your plans and when will you be back racing?

I’ll play it by ear, but I’ll start riding within the week if I’m comfortable. Depending on my speed and how comfortable I am, I reckon I could miss three or four rounds, but I’ll be back no later than the fifth round. I still have my apartment in Murrieta, so as soon as I get there I’ll be ready to roll the sleeves up and get into it.

Are you heading to the first round at Glen Helen this weekend?

Yeah, and it’s going to suck! It’s only an hour away from where I live and although it’s going to kill me to not be out there riding yet, I want to be there both for my sponsors and to see the racing.

If you’re not coming back until the fourth or fifth round, I guess there’ll be no chance of winning the championship this year.

Oh, the championship isn’t possible after dropping that many rounds, but I’m going to do the best I can do when I get out there. I always want to win when I race, but I’ll have to feel it out and hopefully I’m at the pointy end of the field.

Good stuff, bro. Thanks for the chat and we can’t wait to see you back out there real soon.

Thanks mate. Speak to you soon.