Australian Motocross Championship leader Todd Waters says the second race at Broadford’s Monster Energy MX Nationals round was the toughest of his entire career.

Waters was only approved by the Suzuki RACESAFE Medical Team on Sunday morning, however the severity of his head injury sustained one week prior took its toll during the second 30-minute moto of the weekend.

The 22-year-old MX1 leader’s three-round win streak was snapped at Broadford, but he was content with his 2-8 scorecard for fifth overall.

“Right now I have this real tired, slack feeling, like if you lay down and close your eyes you’ll sleep for a couple of hours,” Waters said post-race. “I had a big crash last weekend and was out for 40 seconds and had a brain bleed.

“A couple of doctors said to sit out for two months but RACESAFE said they’d look into some specific testing. On Friday I failed on reflexes, then then they tested me on Saturday and I showed 60 percent, which since I’m a smooth rider and not an out-of-control rider, was a pass.

“[RACESAFE’s] Simon Maas said at some stage I’ll fall in a heap and it will either be after practice or during the day, or maybe on Monday. Unfortunately for me it was after the first race. That second moto was the toughest race I’ve ever done in my life but I just had to finish.

“It’s tough, I’m a racer and coming from winning all the time to eighth place hurts but I’m not 100 percent and I got around best I could to minimise the damage and I owe that to the team and everyone that’s there backing me.

“You need good support to cope with situations like that and that’s what I’ve got this year.”

Motorex KTM team manager Rob Twyerould was proud of Waters’ efforts considering his injuries and uncertainty in the lead-up to race day.

“The whole week was pretty eventful with Todd getting a ‘provisional’ clearance, meaning they’d reassess him after practice and qualifying,” he commented. “His reflex action was quite slow but then he doubled it Saturday, and the decision came to let him ride, and he’s done very well.

“I really want to thank the RACESAFE guys again because they’ve gone above and beyond in their monitoring of him through the day – they’ve just been unreal.”

Waters now holds a 27-point lead in the series over round winner Matt Moss as the season approaches its halfway point.