I won’t give up Glasgow dream, but there is a Plan B

something would snap. Something would give. What is causing all the problems is the QL muscle, the Quadrus Lumbrum system, a big muscle in your core. I didn’t have the core strength to cope with all the intensity. That is hardly surprising, when you look at what innervates all the muscles in the core: the spinal cord. Mine has been operated upon twice and gone through radiation. A lot of those nerves aren’t even working.

Whether it is Plan A or Plan B, I just want to race my bike. The UCI have released the calendar for next year and there are tonnes of races in Europe. I can go out to Italy in April and spend all month racing Paralympic races.

Okay, so I wouldn’t be in GB colours, just a plain racing suit. I can race as an independent, there are races the whole year.

My biggest ambition is not to win medals any more, it is to enjoy what I do and see how fast I can go. Forget all British Cycling’s targets, if I was coming fourth or fifth in the world that is something to be celebrated.

Plan B is starting to take shape. I ask myself what would change and the answer is not that much. I don’t train in Manchester as it is, I train in the velodrome in London, or Derby. I could train in Europe, get a private coach. The thing I would lose would be my funding, but I only get £800 a month. I probably could do some of this on my own.

For that £800 a month, I am expected to train, put a roof over my head, and have the best diet. People don’t think about it like that when they hear British Cycling gets £50m or all those billions of pounds.

We all want to win. But for £800 a month, all that pressure, all that stress, I could just get my own coach, my own programme. I would only be accountable to myself then.

My legs look like they did when I first came out of hospital. I have lost all the muscle. You lose quite a lot in three weeks but the good thing is that once you stimulate the system again you get it back quickly due to muscle memory.

The first week will be hell, and I can’t just jump straight back into it all for risk of re-injury. I will pretty much have stabilisers on for a while. Which leaves me only a few sessions before Glasgow.

Read David’s columns as he goes about his recovery in Sport every Saturday