Honda World Motocross rider Max Nagl is making great progress with his hand injury, sustained during a collision while leading at the Mantova Starcross race in Italy last month, and is now back riding his CRF450R ahead of the start of the World MX1 Championship season next week.
The 25-year-old German racer, who hails from Welheim in Germany, was fortunate to escape more serious injuries, when he and Clement Desalle collided in a racing incident at the pre-season international race third moto in Mantova.
Nagl was initially diagnosed with bruising to his left hand, although further tests found small fractures in the hand and damage to one of his ligaments.
With a number of weeks recovery with specialist treatment from the team‰Ûªs doctors in Italy and Nagl‰Ûªs local doctor close to his home in Belgium, the German racer has been wearing a cast, which has enabled him to concentrate on his physical training while waiting for the injury to heal to an acceptable level for him to ride.
Following on from intensive physiotherapy since Mantova, the Honda star rode a mountain bike on difficult terrain last week to get a feeling of how strong the hand actually is, and with everything going to plan, Nagl was back on his CRF450R on Tuesday of this week.
While the hand is not completely healed and lacks some power, Nagl is comfortable with the injury and has been able to ride a number of laps, which means he will be able to race in Qatar on March 2 with a small amount of riding preparation available to him in the next few days.
‰ÛÏI‰Ûªm so happy to be back on the bike again, because being injured before the start of the season is the worst possible luck for me." Nagl explained.
"Of course I don‰Ûªt have as much power in the hand as I‰Ûªd like, and the motos are going to be very tough, but I am comfortable on the bike and pleased that I can have a few days riding before we head over to Qatar next week.
"I‰Ûªd like to thank all of the Honda team, doctors, my trainer and fans for their support, as it is great news that I can ride again.
"We tried with the mountain bike last week, so I was really hoping we would be okay on the CRF450R this week, and we have found that the recovery is going well." Nagl continued
"I have been training hard, so physically I still feel very good, although I‰Ûªm lacking some bike time, as we‰Ûªve missed the racing in the last three weeks in the Italian championship.
"Now the goal is to get some laps under my belt before leaving and once we get going my aim will be to try and stay safe with good consistency, although the main thing is that we will be in a good position to race at the first Grand Prix.‰Û
