Cructhlow talks about his Mugello injuries

Having dislocated his ankle at the previous race in Italy Cal Cruthclow faces a difficult task this weekend to get the most from his LCR Honda. With badly damaged ankle ligaments it is proving very difficult for him to twist his ankle to be in the correct position on the bike while leaning into corners.

Crutchlow spent the last week cycling in Italy and has clocked up 900km since Mugello on his bicycle and while most people would have availed of the opportunity to rest for the week he felt that getting active has been key to giving him any chance of being fit enough to race this weekend.

“I had some treatment in Italy after the race with Christian, who used to be my therapist, and he worked well with the laser to bring down the swelling around my ankle,” said Crutchlow. “Honestly, I didn’t stop and I went straight out cycling and I’ve done 900km since the last race! But I’ve got to be honest because if I sat and did nothing for an hour my ankle I couldn’t walk afterwards because it would seize up because I’ve got blood on the joint.

“I don’t want to have it drained out because I want to try and let my body heal naturally. I’ve not been using painkillers and the swelling has gone down a lot because with the cycling the blood flow has gone away from the ankle. I had a couple of days off and started to cycle on Wednesday and I’ve been cycling out every day since then.

“I can’t twist my ankle in the ways that I need to for when I’m riding a MotoGP bike. I can move my foot up and down fine but I can’t twist my ankle to the side for when I’m leaning and to use the rear brake will be difficult. But in saying that adrenaline is the best drug in the world so I presume that I won’t have a problem tomorrow.

“My ligaments in the ankle are broken. The ones in the front are working fine and I’ve got no fractures in the foot but the ligaments are broken. I won’t have surgery this year because I promised Lucy that after having four last year that I wouldn’t have another one done this year! I don’t want the surgery anyway because I want my body to start healing more naturally. I know that when I’m 50 I won’t be able to walk too well but that’s part of racing a motorcycle.”

Crutchlow’s race crash wasn’t his only of the weekend and a heavy crash in warm-up left him with vision problems once the race started. While he was fine before the race once he got out on track he started to suffer with his focus when following another rider. His decision to race in Italy after the crash has been questioned by many over the course of the last ten days but the Englishman felt that he was still fit to race. When asked in Montmelo if he had regretted his choice Crutchlow felt that he was never a risk to his competitors and given his pace in the race that he was fit to compete.

“I’m not one to take any risks, especially with other riders on track. When I got up from the warmup crash I was dizzy and my helmet was finished but I didn’t have any vision problems or headaches. I had my lunch and I felt fine, I went to the grid and I felt fine. When we were doing the warmup lap I noticed that I couldn’t see the bikes too well. It felt like the same as the first lap of practice every weekend where you feel sick because you need to get your mind back up to speed after two weeks of not racing. That’s how I felt for the first six laps of the race and when I was riding with anyone in front of me I felt that they were going too fast. When I had noone in front of me I felt fine. I think that looking back it wasn’t the wrong decision to have raced because it had nothing to do with my crash in the race. I felt that I was OK to race, as long as someone wasn’t too close in front of me, and I never raced with anyone that close to me. I was able to still race with Bradley behind me all the race and I was happy with my pace. I felt OK when they were checking my reactions, checking my vision and for all the tests that they did.”