KEY POINTS:
Champion New Zealand motocrosser Ben Townley, suffering from a nagging shoulder injury, is scouring both sides of the Atlantic in search of a cure.
Townley, speaking from his Tallahassee home in Florida today the "fire still burned strong" to continue racing.
The 2004 world MX2 champion said he is doing everything in his power to overcome the pain in his right shoulder.
Townley, 24, suffered a torn rotator cuff and a tear in the labrum to the shoulder in a crash last year.
It was operated on by Dr Steve Augustine in the United States last June.
An initial three months rehabilitation stretched out to consume the rest of the year.
"The aim of taking the time and dealing with those injuries was to come back racing (this year) in full health to start with and then full fitness," Townley said.
"I got to a point in December when I felt like I was doing really well and started to ride and get back into the groove."
But under the intensity of full training after returning to the United States this month, the problem surfaced.
" It is not a majorly issue but there is pain and now I have got to a point where it is actually going backwards again."
It would be impossible to compete on the track if he was not at peak fitness.
"The level I know I got to in 2007 (when he won the East Coast Supercross Lites title and finished second in the national outdoor championship)...I am not there right now."
Because he was in the middle of seeking medical opinion he had no answers yet as to what was behind the problem.
But having discussed the situation with his Honda team and main sponsors, a decision was made to seek at least three or four opinions and have a consensus on at least two within a fortnight.
"Hopefully we will have a decision on where to from here."
Top specialists in the United States would be sought out but Townley was also "going to people I have dealt with in the past and whom I trust".
He will next week see Dr Toon Claes from Belgium who performed a successful operation on a major injury to his right wrist in 2003.
Dr Claes is renowned among world motocross championship riders and professional cyclists for his work on elbows and shoulders.
"Claes is someone I am comfortable with," said Townley and added the trip to Europe would also let him catch up with fellow-New Zealander and world MX1 championship contender Josh Coppins.
His sponsor, Red Bull, who had connections around the world through their involvement with extreme sports were also committed to helping him find the right treatment.
The whole situation was frustrating and he used the word "agony" to describe his situation "because I know what I can achieve and I am not able to go out and even prepare to do it - I was planning to race four weeks from now".
"It's such a tough time, it's hard - I haven't raced in such a long time. This is what I do, what I love and I'm not able to do what I love.
"But 100 per cent, the fire (to compete) really burns - there are still so many dreams and goals I want to achieve (but) I also know in the same breath, I cannot achieve them in the position I am in right now because of the level the guys are racing at these days."
said a report this week saying he was about to take a two-year break from racing and would return to New Zealand in three weeks, "100 per cent came from a rumour and hearsay...it got blown out of proportion".
" I am not stopping racing - I am taking a hiatus from racing...this process isn't starting now, it started last June.
"Returning to racing is still a No 1 priority. There is no time line for that as yet but in the same breath, I am not taking a two-year sabbatical."
- NZPA
