Cameron Woodward admits his Elite League career is at the crossroads after Eastbourne pulled out of the competition.

But he is more concerned right now with getting mobile again after suffering the worst injury of his career.

The Eagles skipper saw perhaps his most exciting finale yet to a season cut short when he suffered a fractured femur racing in Poland.

He spent two weeks in hospital in Lublin but is now back in East Sussex with a few important tasks ahead of him.

Getting back on his feet is clearly the first priority. Finding an Elite League club is up there too after Eagles dropped into the National League.

Former world champion Chris Holder has told Cameron Woodward he will ride in his testimonial. Woodward is expected to stage his big night at Arlington some time next season and said: “It will be the best meeting there of the year.”

He also needs to start planning the testimonial he has been granted at Arlington next season.

And then there’s the small matter of preparing to act as best man to his mechanic and best mate Chris Geer, son of Eagles boss Trevor, before heading home to Australia.

But Woodward admits both the injury and Eagles’ departure from the Elite League knocked him for six.

He said: “I had worked very hard to get through to final round of Grand Prix qualifying.

“I missed the last few meetings trying to get Eastbourne into the play-offs.

“I missed going for gold with my Swedish team, which was gut-wrenching.

“I missed six or eight of the most important meetings of my career, certainly of my season anyway.

“Chris has made me best man for his weeding so I’ve got to stay here until December!

The Argus:

Cameron Woodward, second from right, with the 2008 Eagles team which went on to win the Knockout Cup

“But it’s good because it has given me time to recover here.

“I’m paying to see some really good doctors and some really good physios here.

“The flight home would kill me in the next few weeks anyway.

“This is an opportunity to stay and also try and organise my testimonial.”

Woodward signed for Eastbourne in the early weeks of the 2006 season as replacement for the injured Brent Werner.

Next season would have been his tenth in blue and yellow.

He said; “I’m hugely disappointed because I wanted to be one of the few people in these modern times to do ten seasons in a row with one team.

“I’ve been denied that through this change “I didn’t want to go anywhere. I felt happy riding around here.

“I’ve got some great local sponsors and it’s going to be totally different next year.

“Hopefully I can get a few sponsors to stay with me next year but I can understand it if they don’t want to because they won’t be seeing me around here.

“I definitely want to stay in the Elite League.

“The European leagues are really important to me at the moment as well.

“I want to ride in Poland, Sweden and Denmark next year.

“Then I’ll see what happens with England. There are less teams in the league so there are less spots available and less meetings.

“I don’t know if I’ve got a Premier League average or not. I need a lot of answers.

“I need to get my head together with Trevor and a few people and work out what is best for my career.”

 

Woodward admitted he was surprised to hear of Eagles’ move into the third tier while he lay in his hospital bed in Poland.

He said: “Obviously we knew the promotion were struggling to bring in the crowds at home that they wanted, even though we didn’t lose at home.

“We weren’t winning away but that doesn’t really matter for the home crowd “They couldn’t get new people in to take the club over and it’s quite sad.

“But I haven’t got a leg to stand on with the arguments. It’s just the way it is and good luck to them for next year.”