Rowing: Drysdale making steady progress

Mahe Drysdale believes he's making good progress in his return from a shoulder injury. Photo / Getty Images.

Mahe Drysdale believes he's making good progress in his return from a shoulder injury.

The five-time single sculls world champion sent a scare through the New Zealand rowing squad when he was involved in a cycling crash last month.

But he says he's been back in the boat for 10 days now as the squad prepares for the Olympics in Switzerland.

"Getting back in I've sort of slotted straight back in and done a couple of flat out pieces and while I still have a little bit of pain it's nothing that effects the way that I row."

Drysdale says he's making strides but his pace isn't as quick as he'd like.

"Obviously we'd like to find a little bit more speed between now and the Olympics but there's still another three weeks or so until we get into the sharp end of racing so I'm pretty confident that I'll have all my speed by the time we get there."

Drysdale says while he can row, he doesn't have full use of his shoulder yet and can't lift things above his head.