A little more than a week ago, Philip Deignan saw his first season at Team Sky come to an unpleasant halt when he crashed into a car while training and was left with a broken collarbone. The Irishman is now back in training and still hopes to make the Giro team that will ride in support of Richie Porte when the Italian grand tour kicks off in Belfast in May.

Philip Deignan certainly didn't get the start at Team Sky that he had hoped for when a stupid training crash left him with a broken collarbone a little more than a week ago. Having being a bit too close to a car, he couldn't avoid riding straight into the back of it and for the second time in less than a year, he had sustained one of the most common injuries for a bike rider.

Instead of heading to the Vuelta a Andalucia, Deignan travelled home to Ireland where he is now back in training. After a couple of days on the roller, he has had his first ride on the road and he only missed 10 days of training.

Deignan claims to have felt good on his bike and hopes that his main target of the season is still within reach. As an Irishman, he would love to be at the start line when the Giro d'Italia kicks off in Belfast and stays in Ireland and Northern Ireland for three days and he is still hopeful that he will make the Sky roster.

"It's going to depend on the next couple of weeks and how the training goes," he told Cyclingnews. "The fact that I've only missed 10 days means that I shouldn't have lost a huge amount of fitness. I should be able to get back up to speed relatively quickly and hopefully the Giro is still on. We’ll see next week as to where we are with the race programme.

Team Sky will be going to the Giro as one of the favourites to win, with Richie Porte being the man that will try to bring home the maglia rosa. Deignan would love to play a crucial support role in the mountains.

"The Giro starting in Ireland is obviously huge for me and a big objective for the first half of the year," he said. "The team are sending some strong guys to support Richie, and he’s going there to try and win. We all know what our job will be and I'm hoping I can be one of the support riders for him in the mountains. Everyone knows what Richie is capable of and he’ll definitely go to the start as one of the favourites,"

In 2009, Deignan finished in the top 10 of the Vuelta a Espana and won a stage of the Spanish grand tour but at the moment he has no ambitions of going back to riding for the GC himself.

"At the moment, it’s not something I'm really thinking about," he said. "Right now I'm just focusing on the job I'm required to do on this team. I get more satisfaction, if I'm honest, from trying to help a leader win the race rather than me trying to scrabble into the top 10."

It has still not been announced when and where Deignan will return to competitive action.