Chad Reed is satisfied with his return from mid-season surgery at Minneapolis. Image: Simon Cudby.

TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed made his return to the Monster Energy Supercross, an FIM World Championship, in Minneapolis with a solid fifth place 450SX finish on return from mid-season knee surgery.

The Australian was forced to undergo corrective surgery after the sole Canadian round in Toronto, as a result of that the Australian sat on the sidelines for the Houston round of the series.

Although Reed was obligated to attend the event, he was unsure if he would in fact suit up and race the 14th round of the series until making the last-minute decision to give it a shot just two-weeks off of the operating table.

“My knee is obviously sore and swollen, but I wasn’t messing with anyone when I said I was coming here because I had to,” Reed told Racer X. “I was kind of 50/50 if I was going to race or not. It felt good but it just felt weak.

“That’s the hard thing, it feels better, but it feels weak, because I’m just out of surgery. In the main, I got shuffled all the way to the back really fast, kind of went from a third-place guy down to about tenth. Came back for fifth so I’m stoked, honestly.”

After missing out on the Houston round while recovering from his surgery, Reed managed to lose just four points to Honda Muscle Milk’s Justin Barcia who he is aiming to finish the season ahead of in points.

“We only lost a few points to Bam Bam [Justin Barcia], and that’s the goal right now to try to be fourth in points leaving Vegas, and be the top Honda guy,” he added.

“I’ve got my crew coming down to Florida this week to do some stuff for outdoors, that’s the focus right now, get my knee strong and having a shot at Hangtown.”

Reed currently sits fifth overall in the 450SX points chase, just six points behind Barcia as the series moves to Seattle for round 15 of 17.