IT is fair to say Pirates’ team plans have been ravaged by various injuries in recent weeks.

Nico Covatti, Brady Kurtz, Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen and Richie Worrall have all been sidelined with various problems – decimating the Dorset club’s regular septet.

But for Danish charger Nicolai Klindt, it could have been much, much worse.

The Pirates star has been piecing back together his plans for racing outside of the UK this season, after a frightening collision with a moose when travelling to Slangerup to ride for Danish side Holsted last month.

The 30-year-old’s van, used for racing in Poland, Sweden, Denmark and other international meetings, was left in tatters after smashing into the hefty specimen in the middle of the night.

But Klindt, who is set to fork out thousands for a new vehicle to use across the continent, admitted he was thankful to walk away physically unscathed from the incident, which had left him in a state of shock.

Speaking ahead of Pirates’ SGB Premiership trip to Ipswich tomorrow (7.30pm), the Outrup-born star told the Daily Echo: “I don’t think I have ever been so scared in my life when I saw what was standing in front of me.

“I am not ashamed to say I was in massive shock afterwards.

“It was at two in the morning. I had my mechanic in the back but I was just driving on my own, listening to music.

“All of a sudden I saw something standing in front of me. I thought ‘what’s that?’ and it clicked it was a moose, but it was too late.

“There was the mum and its baby. The reason I hit the mum was because the baby was there. It was walking over the road, saw me and stopped to make sure the baby was getting over the road.”

He continued: “Ten minutes prior to me hitting the van I was sitting there thinking ‘what am I going to do if I hit a moose or something now?’.

“It was bad karma and then I hit it. I don’t think I’m going to think about moose anymore.

“Luckily, the mechanic was sleeping on a settee we have in the back. He didn’t fall that far but he was shaking afterwards because he didn’t have a clue what happened.

“When I first spoke to him, he said ‘did you hit a deer?’ I said ‘no, a moose’ and it didn’t click. He was like 'what?!’. He could see the damage and it was definitely a stressful few days.

“When I sent my family the pictures of the van they were like ‘oh my God, what happened? Are you okay?’.

“The whole thing was smashed, even the cockpit and the front of the radio got pushed back 10 inches. Bits of the engine were broken off, it was definitely not something you want to happen every week that’s for sure.”

Remarkably, Klindt went on to score paid 13 in Denmark less than 24 hours after the collision.

He has since continued his consistent form for Pirates, with nine paid 10 in the Monday’s 57-33 defeat at King’s Lynn.

And having been satisfied with his efforts this season, the former European under-21 champion admitted he was just happy to get back on the bike.

“I’d rather have to buy a new van than be out for half a season because of a broken leg or something,” he added.

“I am definitely thankful for me and the mechanic being okay. I didn’t even have whiplash or anything. I had a bit of a headache the next day and that was it.

“But it’s gone now, all I need to do now is find another van but it’s a bit of a pay out to get one.

“I don’t know how much I am going to get back in insurance but a new van is a good £30,000 or £35,000, so I need to find that from somewhere.

“It’s not at this time when you want to spend that money on a new van. I want to buy new engines to try to better my performance.

“Luckily, I had been able to borrow a van from a sponsor for one meeting. Then I had been able to find a small van, I can rent per day and hopefully I can do that for the rest of the season.

“These things happen, you just have to find a way round it.”