Lee Johnston: Racer wants to be competitive in any NW200 return after suffering serious injuries in crash
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Lee Johnston on his long road to recovery after NW200 accident
Motorcycle racer Lee Johnston says he has "no interest in riding round and not being competitive" if he recovers sufficiently from his injuries to compete in the sport again.
The 34-year-old Isle of Man TT winner suffered extensive injuries in a crash at this year's North West 200.
"I want to go back and win," Johnston told BBC Sport NI of a possible return.
"With the hard work and the risks and when you've been lucky enough to win a few races that's how your brain works."
He added: "That's the aim, to try and get back and be fit enough to do that."
Johnston crashed during a Supersport qualifying session at the North West 200 in May and was airlifted to hospital, where he had a nine-hour operation on numerous injuries.
He was initially treated at the scene of his accident at the Church Corner section of the course before being transported to Portstewart by ambulance and then taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast by helicopter.
Johnston had received a blood transfusion on the golf course beside the circuit before being transferred to hospital, where he spent three days on a ventilator.
He suffered a broken femur, shoulder, fractured foot and face, broken ribs, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding.
Five months after the incident, the five-time North West 200 race winner has revealed that he is "improving all the time".
"I'm still big into the physio and going to the hospital for check-ups and scans," he explained.
"Life is not normal yet but it is better both mentally and physically in the last six to eight weeks.
"In my head I don't have any connection to that day [the accident] because I don't remember it but what I've been told, and from the video, I can piece together why I'm sore in certain places.
"Obviously you are in a lot of pain when the vast majority of your body is broken but there is only so much that you can take in at any one time. Femur, shoulder, lung and ribs, it'd never be all [painful] at the one time but it just meant that you never got a break, no respite.
"That was the hardest part for the first month or so and then the mental side of it, trying to deal with why we were in that position and obviously feeling sorry for yourself and all the other thought processes that come with it."
Lee Johnston celebrates the most recent of his five North West 200 wins in the Supersport class in 2022
'Really special' being back on a bike
Johnston was recently back on a racing motorbike for the first time since his accident when he completed some laps on his supertwin machine at a recent track day at Anglesey run by former top motorcycle racer James Whitham.
"That little boy is still there and will always be in there that absolutely loves riding a motorbike," he enthused.
"When someone takes it away from you that's when you really realise that.
"It was really special and it should help my recovery because the whole point was having my physio there and seeing what we need to work on and improve. We've taken some big steps since that day.
"I'm pushing really hard to get fit but I'm realising some days you will push a little bit too hard and it can take three or four days off me so it actually sets me back.
"That's been the hardest part, keeping the reins on wanting to do things because you feel a little bit better and think, 'I can do this, I can do that' and then you realise you can't.
"We're probably a few months off being fit to say I can be competitive, to jump on the bike and not be worried about the injuries.
"The strength is the biggest thing because when I left the hospital I think I was 55 kilos and I'm normally 65 and I don't really have 10 kilos to lose. The biggest thing is the muscle wastage."
'Hard to say you can definitely do it'
Lee Johnston in action during Supersport qualifying at the North West 200
Before his accident, the Fermanagh native raced in the international road races and in the British Supersport championship, while also managing his Ashcourt Racing team.
"In my head that's what I want to do [NW200, BSB, TT] but I'm not going to do it unless I'm fit to do it. I've got no interest in coming to ride round and not be competitive.
"We've got quite a lot of riding planned over the winter, we're going to go to Spain and stuff, and try and get in that position.
"It's hard to say you can definitely do it, that's the annoying part about the shoulder, it could be getting better and then just stop with either movement or an impediment. I don't want to jinx the recovery.
"But at the minute I feel good and we are progressing really well. If we can get another month of training in now and then go to Spain in December and get six or eight days of riding on the bike, then we'll have a really good understanding of what we are fit to do.
"I can't go [back to the NW] with it meaning everything because that brings a load of emotion. I want to go back and win but not because I didn't make it round. I don't know why I crashed or what happened, but the fact that I'm here and getting better is all that matters to me. I'm not one for clinging on to the negative really.
"It would mean a lot and to see the fans too, when I go home the support I get is unbelievable."