Great Britain Cycling Team track sprinter Kian Emadi is happy with his progress as he recovers from a back injury but is unsure when he will make his competitive return.
Emadi is back in training at the National Cycling Centre in Manchester after sustaining a lumber disc pathology in early September.
The damage has forced the 22-year-old to miss the British Cycling National Track Championships, European track championships and the opening round of the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Mexico.
Although keen to return to competition, Emadi and the Great Britain Cycling Team’s coaching staff want to ensure no steps are skipped in his rehabilitation.
“I’m not sure, I mean it's very hard to say,” Emadi said when asked about when he could make his comeback.
“You take it day-by-day. Stuff can go really well and you feel great or you can have a little bit of a setback so it's hard to put a date on stuff.
“The worlds is the big target and if I can get some good work done before then I'll see what happens.”
Emadi, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been focusing on the man-three position in the team sprint alongside Olympic champions Jason Kenny and Philip Hindes.
Having missed out on the podium at the 2013 and 2014 world championships, the trio put in their best performance to date to win silver for England at the Commonwealth Games in July before Emadi was forced out of action.
In his absence, Callum Skinner has stepped into the position, winning gold with Hindes and Kenny at the opening round of the world cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“It was frustrating,” said Emadi of his injury. “It happened at a time when stuff was ticking along nicely, I had good form and I felt really good about my training.
“But it's kind of the way of the world when you're going really well, you are breaking new ground each day and you put your body under additional stress.
“So if things are going to go wrong it can be at that time when you're under a lot of physical stress from good performances.”
Having initially felt discomfort in his back, Emadi attempted to manage the problem through training before it became clear the issue was more serious than first thought.
“It was a few days really when my back was feeling a bit sore really and we just thought it was a niggle,” he said.
“So I kept trying to manage it and train and then I was just in the gym one day lifting and it felt a tweak.
“You get a little bulge at the bottom of your back and it just makes it a bit uncomfortable.”
Although disappointed to have missed the start of the winter season, Emadi remains positive about his improvement with next year’s world championships taking place in Paris in February.
“I'm doing really well,” he said. “I've been seeing Phil Burt, the (Great Britain Cycling Team) physio, a lot and he's been doing some great work and kept me in really good shape.
“I'm training, it's a little bit modified to take care of the niggle but it's going well.”
