It’s that time! Time for some Outdoors in the Summer heat in the USA!
Nothing like the start of a new series. Plenty of riders coming in fresh and ready, thinking they are a chance at turning around their seasons. Particularly those that have had a less than spectacular Supercorss series. Even more so for those that missed a chunk of supercross with injury.
What’s different about the start of this outdoors series?
For one the gap between Supercross finishing and Motocross beginning is much bigger this year than in past years. In the past there has been at most one weekend off between the series. Leading to a fair bit of burn out and for many a Supercross Champion. A Supercross hangover so to speak. This year there have been 3 weekends off. Allowing all riders to reset. Be in a better position with bike setup as they have all had adequate testing time. Along with all riders being able to take the necessary rest or get in the rehab work to be fully recovered from any injuries sustained during the Supercross season.
The other big difference in 2021 is we are back to 12 rounds and 24 motos. Last year’s shortened 9 round series due to covid restrictions is a distant memory. We have a return to almost all the usual historical American MX tracks and all should have crowd attendance. Somewhat returning to normal for 2021. Phew!
So is anyone still injured? Who, if anyone, may still have issues coming into the 2021 outdoor season due to injuries? The big one question mark is over a title favourite. Jeremy Martin #6 in the 250 class. Not only did Jeremy opt for the conservative management approach for his shoulder dislocation sustained at Orlando 2. There are rumours of another injury for Jeremy during his outdoor preparations.
If you follow my instagram page I have been hinting at a possible wrist injury as Jeremy has recently started wearing a mobius wrist brace on his left side. Possible clue to the rumoured injury? I think so. No details on what it is or was. But likely he has had a reduced preparation and may not be the dominant force many are expecting in 2021. He may yet have issues with shoulder stability. Maybe this quietly kept wrist injury prevents him from reaching his potential this year. Watch and see is all we can do.
What about our 450 champ Zach Osbourne? Talk in the media about his low back injury from supercross continues. It hasn’t ended despite him being back on the bike. Why is that? Zach has sustained a disc herniation. An injury that without somewhat very invasive surgical work is not likely to improve with general physiotherapy. At least not to the point required for a professional athlete, let alone a professional motocrosser. It’s also not a surgery that would tend to an unrestricted return to racing either.
So a bit of a catch 22 here for Zacho. Zach has also spoken about the need to modify his training habits because of his injury. No longer will he be spending hours on end doing rowing or cycling for cardio training. These flexed spine positions are torture for disc hernations. He has taken up cross country roller skating (Check out his instagram for a picture of this). So at this point with this info it would seem that Zach might not be best placed to repeat in 2021. Or even make all 12 rounds if he was to have another flare up which could come about from something as simple as sneezing.
Of all the injury recoveries or non recoveries coming into the outdoors this year. Christian Craig is top of the list for wow factor. For those who keep up with our content Christian fractured his fibula at Salt Lake City 1. He had surgery on the Monday after and was back on the bike less than 17 days post injury. He was stationary cycling at 3-4days post op!!!
The fibula, much like the collarbone. Is easily plated. Although unlike the collarbone this is rarely completed as it is a non weight bearing bone and usually responds well to reduced loading from a moon boot and recovered in 4-6wks. But given the time to make the gate for outdoors Christian opted for surgery and has now had 1-2weeks of bike time that I really didn’t expect him to get coming into the start of motocross. A Somewhat whirlwind recovery and keen to see if he has any issues with his leg in the early rounds. Or if he manages to perform strongly from the opener.
It will be a long season so expect a long list of injuries by the end. But be sure to check back in weekly for all the updates as we have them.
No injury list this week. But we will build this up again as soon as the moto’s kick off this weekend! Hoping for a small list, but history tells me that’s unlikely in our sport of Moto.
(David Hogan – @always.moto on instagram)
As always, If your favourite rider is on this list, most likely they are seeing a Doctor or been to the Emergency Department via Ambulance recently.
This List has who we know has an injury. What that injury is and to where. As well as when we expect them back at the races. Maybe some extras if you’re lucky.
If we have missed a rider or got an injury update wrong let us know. alwaysmoto2019@gmail.com
