Espargaro suffers severe foot injury in bicycle accident caused by mobile phone use
Aprilia Rider Aleix Espargaro Injured Following Mugello Crash
An incident occurred at Mugello on Thursday that left Aprilia rider, Aleix Espargaro with a serious injury. The crash caused back and arm injuries but the heel was severely damaged, which means he won’t be able to use his rear brake.
Espargaro managed to come ninth in both FP1 and FP2 despite being injured. He will head straight into Q2 on Saturday.
The rider explained that the accident was due to him being careless while cycling. During an interview he said: “It was a stupid thing.” “I decided to go out for two hours and it was quite foggy yesterday morning, so I said to myself okay, stay in track because it’s more safe.” “Being on track, I was more relaxed so I was using my phone like an idiot and then had a big crash.”
“I hurt all my back and arm and everything – big crash – but this is not the biggest problem. My heel is destroyed; I have a lot of pain; there’s blood inside.”
Espargaro went further stating: “We removed the blood for the second session; I had infiltration but it wasn’t really working”. “When we tried putting infiltration on foot – blood pushed solution out – we removed lots of blood from heel”. He admitted that he has been taking painkillers throughout practice sessions as well as applying ice regularly.
“But this time its nothing broken but it’s full of blood… every time i use (the brake) ,it will make more blood… When there is more Blood-when i put the boot and i move, i see stars-its crazy pain.”
Espargaro’s FP2 result was not that bad, according to the team. They considered adding a thumb brake during Friday’s sessions but believed it could cause more problems and possibly crash.
“I make many times the infiltration. After my left heel at Silverstone, I raced on Sunday – it was not a disaster..” “The only thing we can do is remove the blood and ice, ice, ice.”
The Spanish rider said he has had worse injuries before in his career such as destroying both hands but still racing after one week of operation with no problem. He remains optimistic despite this setback and will be looking to compete alongside other riders over the weekend.