Mark Loram could be back in action for Eastbourne Eagles inside a month after fears he had broken his leg proved unfounded.

Hospital X-rays have revealed the former world champion dislocated his ankle in a crash at Oxford on Monday night when it was first believed he had sustained a compound fracture of the right leg.

Loram said "Everyone at the track, including the paramedic, thought I had broken my leg because the foot was at a funny angle."

Loram, who had only just returned to racing after recovering from a broken arm, added: "I was lucky the ankle dislocated without breaking.

"I'd like to think I would be back in two or three weeks but then I said six weeks before and it was three months."

By a bizarre coincidence, Eastbourne starlet Edward Kennett did break a leg in a crash on Monday.

Kennett sustained a hair-line crack just below the left knee when he was flung from his machine while riding for Rye House at Reading.

The injury is a blow to Kennett's hopes of riding in the world under-21 final in Sweden.

He said: "I hope I will be told something when I go back to hospital next week but at the moment I don't know how long it will be before I can ride again."

The previous week, another young Eastbourne rider, Daniel Giffard, broke both ankles and a wrist when he was thrown over the safety fence while riding at Stoke.