BRACED FOR IMPACT
In late 2007, just after I’d signed my new contract with the MS-Racing team, I broke my fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae. I was being filmed, and I was a bit too slow on a drop, got my rear wheel stuck and flipped forwards. The accident could easily have turned out differently; I was incredibly lucky not to incur nerve damage. Since then, I’ve worn a neck-brace. Sometimes.

CRASH LANDING
At the World Cup in Fort William last year, I landed awkwardly on my knees when I fell, and got a piece of metal rammed right into the flesh just above my left knee. Not only did that give me a pretty ugly wound, which took ages to heal, it also meant I couldn’t take part in the World Cup. I had to get a whole load of MRI scans to work out whether I’d torn the ligaments and tendons. Luckily, I hadn’t.

BROKEN BESPOKEN
In August 2008, at the World Cup in Australia, I got a move wrong and broke both wrists: the radius, the scaphoid bones, the trapezoids, all broken, as well as ligaments and tendons. It took some butchery to cobble it together again. The fact that they had to take a bit of my pelvic bone and embed it into the scaphoid bone was the least of their worries. The whole mess in the area was worse. The doctors had to cut all the way around my wrists to be able to reconstruct them. And they did it very well. Now I can do everything bar press-ups. For downhill, I use special supports customised for me by the guys at the Allsport Dynamics sports-brace company.

MENTAL SCARS
Of course, injuries also leave their mark inside your head. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get pensive after a fresh injury. But as soon as you’re on the mend, all you want to do is get back on the bike. When I had my wrist troubles, my doctor told me he thought my biking days were over. Six months after the operations, I got back on a cross-country bike for the first time on the quiet. Just the sensation of being able to ride again was worth all the pain. And what did my doctor have to say about that? That you shouldn’t believe everything doctors say. Take a ride with Matti at www.mattilehikoinen.com

CWORLD ON HIS SHOULDER
In 2002, I broke my collarbone when, ahem, dismounting over the handlebars, and that had to be screwed back together. In 2005, I broke the rotator cuff in the same shoulder and tore two ligaments. One shoulder’s hung a bit lower than the other ever since. Basically, it’s OK, but I have to make sure to build up enough muscle to keep the shoulder stable. That’s why I do a lot ofwork with elastic straps. Swimmingis also good, especially for the fresh scars. I was once playing around with a measuring tape: altogether I’ve got 62cm of operation scars on my body.