Photo: MotoGP.com
Bad news for Ben Spies' and Ducati fans: the American will not be present at Jerez for the 3rd round of the 2013 MotoGP championship. It looks like his shoulder is far from being 100% recovered after the hard crash and serious injury Spies went through last year in the Malaysian round.
Even though him and the team though he was well on his road to a full recovery, Ben Spies experienced severe pain in the Warm-Up session at the COTA in Texas. He managed to finish the race in the 13th position and was then seen by his medical team.
They said that Ben needs three consecutive weeks of intense rehab to relieve pain and build up his muscle, thus becoming able to cope with the stress of racing conditions. Given his better physical condition, the doctors advised a different therapy, focused on limb mobility.
Spies added: “This morning we had a little bit of a problem with a nerve in my chest, for some reason. I don’t know whether it was over-compensating with my shoulder, but my shoulder has got a lot better from Qatar which is really, really good.
Two laps from the end of the Warm-Up I had a twinge in my chest and it felt like there was a knife in it. I don’t know what happened. We went to the Clinica Mobile; they worked with me a lot and got me ready for the race…we need to work harder and get back to 100% because we’re definitely not there, physically, right now.”
He will miss the Jerez race but will be back in the saddle for the Le Mans one. His team will announce a replacement rider soon, so watch this space.
They said that Ben needs three consecutive weeks of intense rehab to relieve pain and build up his muscle, thus becoming able to cope with the stress of racing conditions. Given his better physical condition, the doctors advised a different therapy, focused on limb mobility.
Spies added: “This morning we had a little bit of a problem with a nerve in my chest, for some reason. I don’t know whether it was over-compensating with my shoulder, but my shoulder has got a lot better from Qatar which is really, really good.
Two laps from the end of the Warm-Up I had a twinge in my chest and it felt like there was a knife in it. I don’t know what happened. We went to the Clinica Mobile; they worked with me a lot and got me ready for the race…we need to work harder and get back to 100% because we’re definitely not there, physically, right now.”
He will miss the Jerez race but will be back in the saddle for the Le Mans one. His team will announce a replacement rider soon, so watch this space.
Google News