LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow admits that his arm is not yet in a good situation ahead of the French MotoGP a month after arm pump surgery.
Cal Crutchlow underwent a surgery to correct arm pump following the Styrian Grand Prix back in August but was forced to miss the two Misano rounds after developing complications from the surgery. He is continuing to battle with his swollen arm as he raced in the Catalan MotoGP and finished 10th and now its down to 10 days since the event and his arm has not gotten any better.
“I spent 10 days at home, 10 days in hospital seeing surgeons, MRI scans, etc,” Crutchlow said when asked about his physical condition. “Just another week in the life of ‘if it was easy everyone would be doing it’. My arm’s not in a great situation at the moment, honestly speaking.”
“It’s one of the reasons why I didn’t ride at Portimao [in Wednesday’s test], I didn’t want to use the arm. So, again, I will ride this weekend and then I will go and see Dr Mir again and consult with him as to what the best option is to do because the arm still has some fluid, the arm is very swollen, the flexor muscle is very, very hard for some reason.”
“And the skin is completely stuck to the muscle and the tendons and we can’t get it off. Whatever happens, you can’t get it off. Physiotherapy, massage, you can do whatever you want but it’s like super glue. So, as you can imagine there’s no fascia in there now, so the scar tissue normally would stick to the fascia, but there’s no fascia there so it’s stuck to the muscle.”
“So, it’s not a great situation.”
The LCR Honda rider is not concerned about the long term situation of his arm but is very focussed on managing it over the next seven weeks remaining on the 2020 MotoGP Season with only six races to go. Crutchlow is also unsure if he has to miss any of the rounds as a result of his swollen arm.
“I don’t know if I’ll have to sit any out, but I believe that most people wouldn’t ride or be able to ride,” he added. “But that’s not something to be proud of, to be honest. I wish I wasn’t in this situation, of course.”
“But, I’ll continue to do my job, I love my job, I still want to be out there. That’s the reason I am. The good thing is there’s no real safety concern for anybody else on track, it’s more of a concern for me with my arm.”
“It’s not going to heal over these next weeks, there’s no doubt about that. I’m not concerned for the arm long-term. I think the arm will settle down once I get to the bottom of the problem and once I can have that fixed.”
“Problem is, we don’t really know what it is at the moment, but I believe if I continue to race next year and if I have the winter off, the arm will be fine next year. That’s not a concern at all. The concern is these six races in a row, it’s going to be difficult.”
