Team GPKR’s Christophe Pourcel underwent successful surgery yesterday afternoon in Marseille while Molson Kawasaki’s Stephen Sword will have the pins removed from his broken foot next week.
After a long and painful transfer from Belfast to the hospital in Marseille Christophe Pourcel was welcomed by Dr Olivier Dufour and his colleagues, who then performed several tests. They discovered further damage to his shoulder and decided to operate on Thursday afternoon as the eighteen year old had lost sensation in parts of his lower body.
The procedure was successful. ‘Christophe was in the operating room for almost six hours as it was a difficult and delicate operation,’ explained Patrick Geladé Thursday night. ‘The doctors cleaned the nerves that had been affected in the crash, reduced the fracture of the sacrum, and filed the bone that was pinching the nerves. None of them have been broken, just damaged and the doctors confirmed to us that Christophe will have normal use of all his body within a few days. We all have had some bad moments since last Sunday but the most important is that Christophe will walk, run and live normally in the future. It’s too early to talk about his racing comeback but for sure his family and all the members of the team will now go to England with peace of mind.’
Christophe will stay at the hospital of Marseille, meanwhile the team will move to Donington Park for the penultimate round of the World Championship. Sébastien Pourcel currently third in the MX1 standings and Thierry Godfroid, third in the Veteran’s World Cup, will defend the colours of the team while Livia Lancelot is training hard in Belgium to prepare for the final round of the Women’s World Cup, scheduled in Lierop one week later.
Former multi British Champion and Molson Kawasaki rider Stephen Sword will have the pins inserted in his right foot to help repair the three metatarsals broken at Namur for the Grand Prix of Belgium removed next Wednesday. The 27 year old and MX2 Grand Prix winner will then need another three weeks recovery before he can put weight on the limb. He will miss the end of both the World and British Championships but can start his winter training programme fully fit.
‘It was a six week injury basically. I have had the pins in for half of that time and they are due to come out next week,’ he said. ‘There will be another three weeks before I can start doing normal things on the foot. The injury was a real shame because I had got a lot of confidence from finishing fourth at Loket and for the team’s sake just as much as mine I wanted to end the season on a high note. This year was always going to be about coming back into racing rather than setting any high goals or results and now I will be able to go into the 2008 with a good winter of training and preparation behind me.’
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