Honda rider Pol Espargaro could be forced to begin his MotoGP summer break early, having encountered a major pain setback in Friday practice for the Dutch TT at Assen.
The Spaniard hurt his ribs in a highside during first practice at the Sachsenring, and dropped out of that weekend’s race due to a combination of that injury and excess heat from the bike.
And with the Assen race coming the very next weekend, Friday practice made it clear to Espargaro that he is nowhere near fully fit yet and could have to cut his losses.
“Worse than I expected,” he said of his condition. “I expected to be much better here.
“On wet [track], I felt good, I finished third in the morning – but then in the afternoon, when we started to put the [slick] soft tyres, it was quite a lot of tension because the track situation was difficult.
“Then I pushed and I felt that straight away my ribs started to hurt quite a lot, and also my back. All the back muscles that protect the ribs, to compensate all the power you do [with] the ribs and the abdomen, get super tense, and I have an unbelievable contracture on my back, I struggle to take the air and even I was sometimes struggling to talk after the session… the situation is difficult.”
Espargaro hopes medical assistance can allow him to see out the weekend – but says he will only continue if there’s a chance to be competitive.
“I didn’t expect the situation I have now. I didn’t expect to have this big contracture on my back. And I didn’t expect to feel so bad as I feel now.
“So now I’m going to take some treatment, some anti-inflammatories and see how this reacts tomorrow, and see if I’m able to ride, and if I’m able to ride fast. Because if I’m not able to ride fast and to perform well, there is no sense to ride.
“I’m going to treat [it] as maximum as I can, as I’ve been doing at home… Monday after the race at the Sachsenring, after the 23 laps I did, I couldn’t even get up off the bed. Tuesday and Wednesday was better… but ooof, I’m struggling.”
