As announced in a team press release back on July 26, 2019, Baggett had been fighting an illness for the majority of the 2019 Pro Motocross Championship. Over the recent weeks he has seen a number of specialists, where a primary issue was found. Baggett had been fighting sinus infection issues for most of the summer, with a large amount of it coming from his right eye. For those who know Blake’s history, he incurred a pretty serious eye injury back in his 250 days, thus causing him to encounter small infections in the eye region of his sinuses at times over the years.
Upon dealing with what seemed to be one of these random sinus infections, Blake contracted a full Staph infection (properly termed: Staphylococcus Infection) in his right eye socket. Staph is an infection that must be dealt with seriously, and a first run of antibiotics was put into place for 7 days. However, as often with Staph a second run of antibiotics was needed as the first did not clear up the infection.
“Blake tried riding 2 days this week and it just wasn’t happening. He wants it so bad, but his safety is by far and away what is most important to us and the final few races are just not in the cards. You know, you wish you could wind back time as an athlete all the time but you just can’t. Looking back, I honestly want to personally guess Blake picked up the Staph infection before the Jacksonville National. Everyone knows how hot that race was and how many riders suffered, and I feel that was the race that really started to put Blake in a hole with his immune system. Staph is gnarly, period. And Blake doesn’t give up, period. He has issues with his eye at times and I think it just caught us all off guard because he just honestly never gives up. The upside is it is treatable, and we are in the process of doing just that. Staph on a finger or hand is bad enough, but an eye is something that if not treated properly could cause permanent damage. We are going to be smart with this as a team and let Blake heal up properly”, says team owner Forrest Butler.
Blake Baggett had to say, “I want to race more than anything in the world, but more than that is I want to win. I often have small infection issues with my eye, it’s normal too me. After I won the first Moto back at Mt. Morris it felt good, but my body didn’t feel right. I struggled in the second Moto and I would say that was the start of it. I have never had a Staph infection before, and I honestly just did not know how bad they can get and effect your body. By Southwick and Red Bud I was having to pull my goggles off with a few laps remaining, not because there was anything wrong with my goggles!! I was pulling them because I honestly felt like my eyeballs were on fire and I was about to shoot red lasers out of them! (laughing). It was definitely something I had never experienced before, and then my body was becoming so weak that I couldn’t even get my heart rate up. By Millville, it just came to a point where I couldn’t ride and myself, my family and my team decided it was time to take a step back, get to the right doctors and find out what was going on. I’m glad we did, I’m glad we are on the road to recovery and most of all I just want to get back to healthy and get out there to battle for more wins.”
The entire Rocky Mountain ATV/MC – KTM – WPS team would like to thank everyone for all their support and questions on Blake and his condition. We truly have the greatest sponsors in the sports of Supercross and Motocross, and are excited to get after it with team riders Benny Bloss and Justin Bogle at Budds Creek, the venue of round 11 of the 2019 Pro Motocross Nationals.
Thank you to our 2019 sponsors:
Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, KTM, WPS, Fly Racing, 51FIFTY Energy Drink, Palmetto Motorsports, Bubba Burger, FMF Racing, Engine Ice, Alpinestars, ODI, Scott, Galfer, Motorex, ASV, Acerbis, GEAR Alloy, JStar Auto Group, SoCal SuperTrucks, HBD MotoGrafx, XYO Network, Cherokee NC, Seat Concepts, Sunstar, Regina Chains, WP Factory Services, Hinson Racing, ETS Fuels, DT-1, Dunlop, Motion Pro, Talon, Dubya, Excel, FCP, Loenbro, Truck Central, Hurly, Beta Tools, ProPegs, Xtrig, San Diego Powder and Protective Coatings
