British rider Nicole Cooke says the broken collarbone she sustained at the Manchester round of the track World Cup on Friday shouldn't prevent her from defending her Commonwealth Games title in Melbourne, Australia in March.
"I'm still very sore and tender around the collarbone, so that's going to take quite a while to heal," Cooke told the BBC. "But I'm sure I will be able to get to Melbourne - it's not ideal but if there is a right time to have an accident like this I suppose this was it."
Cooke fell in a points race heat on the first evening of competition at Manchester after a collision with Canada's Gina Grain. "I can't think there was anything I was doing wrong, to be brought down like that is horrible at any time," Cooke said. "But when the consequences mean taking several weeks off the bike it does have a much bigger impact later on.
"I am lucky that we are three months away from the Commonwealth Games, so providing I can get back on a bike on the indoor turbo-trainer in two weeks' time then I should be able to train my legs. With some gym work and some imagination, hopefully by the middle of January when I can ride normally back on the road I'll not have fallen too far behind."
