As the whole motocross world knows, Jeffrey Herlings crashed last weekend at a round of the Dutch Masters of Motocross and broke his collarbone. With a massive points lead in the MX2 championship it wasn’t the end of the world, but it had continued his terrible luck with injuries the last few years.
Geoff Meyer were lucky enough to catch up with the Red Bull / KTM Factory rider today, and asked him about his accident, the operation and when do we expect him back.
Jeffrey, so can you tell me how the accident happened?
It was the second moto, I had a big lead, like 30 seconds, and we were half way through the moto. It was a long sweeper and I high sided and went over the bars, then I landed on my shoulder. It wasn’t a high speed crash or anything and I was just unlucky. I laid on the ground for a couple of seconds, and then picked up the bike and got going. I didn’t feel anything, but then I took a table top, and I heard a crazy noise in the shoulder. I thought, what is this, so I went back to the pits and I knew pretty quickly it was the collarbone.
Why do you think it broke so easily?
Obviously the break was a nice one, broke the same place as in Germany last year, the reason it probably broke was I started riding too early last year and the plate got a little bent, so that was why I had pain in the winter on the collarbone, and that was why they removed the plate. At that point they didn’t know that the plate was bent a little bit, but also the bone was bent a little bit. Because the bone was bent and when I crashed last weekend, all the pressure came onto the bent part, and it just snapped. The doctor said had I crashed onto the other shoulder, it probably wouldn’t have broken, because the straight bone wouldn’t break as easy.
So how did the operation go and how are you feeling?
I had an operation on Monday morning, stayed there a night and left the hospital on Tuesday morning. I am back training again, but need to be careful with not sweating, as I had an infection on my leg (because of that). We want to keep the risk as low as possible, so I just do a little bit of training. I have no pain, it was painful after the operation because of the scare and the swelling, but now four days after the surgery I hardly feel I broke it four days ago.
What about Loket, will you be there?
At the moment we are undecided. I have to go for a check-up next week and we will make some photos and he will judge it. It’s day by day, but for Lommel it’s 100% I will be there, unless something crazy happens. I mean I might be at Loket, but with a lead of nearly 170 points and knowing what Loket has done to me in the past, two bad crashes there already, I don’t know.
But if you are fit you will go?
I mean I will leave it up to the doctor, if he says I am 100% percent, then I probably go, but for Lommel that track is like my backyard, I have grown up on that track, and it would be good to start at that track. But we will wait and see what the doctor says about Loket.
I can’t even imagine how disappointed you were when you realized you broke another bone?
I was like oh my god, it’s July again, and once again I get injured in July. I mean a collarbone is an injury that takes a couple to three weeks to start riding again. And there are six races to go and I have a big points lead, plus three sand tracks are coming, so I am not stressed at all. I feel like I don’t want to make the same mistake as last year. I have been riding since November non stop, just a short break because of a crack in my heal, but we won 12 GPs and we are looking really good. I don’t want to rush things like last year and not be 100% and maybe go down again. That is why I have question marks about Loket. We have many options and I leave it up to the doctor.
Having broken a bone isn’t great, but there are a lot of positives for you with the big points lead and it’s not a worse injury.
I mean, you are always negative when you break a bone, but a collarbone, or a finger, you can come back from that. You break a leg or an arm or a femur, then you are screwed for the season. A collarbone, it’s just a couple of weeks. It’s a pity because I just tipped over and I was riding in control and it’s a pity, but its racing and we are still looking good. No need to stress yet.
How has the support been from the fans and friends?
It has been really good. People do get like; man don’t screw it up for the third time in a row. But I won’t rush back, and places like Lommel, Assen, Glen Helen, I will do well at those place. It’s going to be hard for Jeremy (Seewer) to go 1-1 in Loket, I mean it’s possible, but unlikely. But the worst case is he goes that and I still have a points lead of around 120 points.
Ray Archer images
