Ben Spies’s run of truly appalling luck continues. During the Saturday morning FP3 session of practice for the MotoGP race at Indianapolis, Spies was thrown from his Ignite Pramac Ducati and fell very heavily on his left shoulder.
The Texan was taken to the medical center at the circuit, where he was diagnosed with an acromioclavicular joint dislocation, the separation of the collarbone from the shoulder blade. Spies has been forced to withdraw from the Indianapolis GP.
The accident could not have come at a worse time. Spies had just made his return after a layoff of nearly two months, which had been preceded by a string of intermittent races as he struggled with the recovery from surgery on his right shoulder. He had injured that shoulder in a huge crash in the wet at Sepang.
The Texan had returned to racing too early from that injury, and been forced to stop after his home race at Austin. Another return at Mugello proved to be premature, Spies then deciding to wait until he was fully recovered before attempting to race again. That came at Indy, and Spies had commented after the first day that it was nice to be able to ride at full strength again.
His hopes were shattered on Saturday morning, when he fell heavily on his left shoulder. Dislocating the shoulder is painful enough, but to do so at this moment, at the first of a triple header of races which sees MotoGP fly from Indy to Brno and then straight to Silverstone on three consecutive weekends gives him no time to recover.
His plans are as yet unknown, nor is the severity of the dislocation. If it is only minor, he could be back racing quickly. If it is more severe, he could be out for several months. Spies told Cycle News that he suffered a grade 3 separation of the acromioclavicular joint, that he is returning to Dallas for treatment, and that he will be out for three weeks at least.
A grade 3 separation is often treated without the need for surgery, but his specialist will examine him to decide on whether surgery is the best course of treatment or not. Once we receive official word of his condition, we shall post an update as soon as possible.
Photo: © 2013 Scott Jones / Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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