Broken Leg, Ribs, and Back for John McGuinness

Crashing during the superbike practice at the North West 200 on Thursday, John McGuinness was reported to have suffered a broken right leg. But now getting an update on his condition, we can see that his injuries are far worse than was initially thought.

While Honda Racing has withdrawn from the rest of superstock and superbike races at the North West 200, because of concerns regarding a mechanical issue causing the McGuinness’ crash, these injuries also cast significant doubt over John McGuinness competing in this year’s Isle of Man TT.

As we reported earlier, McGuinness sustained a fracture to his right leg in the crash, which doctors were unable to plate the compound break in surgery, and instead they will be attaching an external fixture to the leg, in order to hold the bones in place.

In addition to his leg injuries, McGuinness broke three of the ribs along his back, and he also fractured four vertebrae in the process.

To treat the latter injury, McGuinness will have to wear a back brace for six weeks. He will remain also at the Royal Victoria Hospital for one week as part of the recuperation process.

While no one has said whether the 23-time TT race winner will be back at this year’s event, it would be hard to see how McGuinness could recover fully enough to race at the TT in two weeks’ time…though motorcycle racers are often a special breed, road racers being even more so.

According to their press release, Honda Racing has received McGuinness’ bike from the North West 200 race organizers, and will be performing a detailed analysis of the bike’s ECU at the team’s headquarters in Louth.

Talk out of the NW200 paddock though suggests that the crash was caused by a mechanical issue with the Honda CBR1000RR, which is a new platform for this year’s road races.

“Unfortunately John’s incident at Primrose Hill during qualifying has resulted in quite a substantial injury to his right Tibia and Fibula. It is a real blow to John and the team, but he’s got an incredible amount of spirit and is in very good hands with the medical staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital,” said Jonny Twelvetrees, Team Manager of Honda Racing.

“We now need to determine what happened and will sit out the Superstock and Superbike races, get back to Louth to analyse John’s bike and re-group ahead of our next test at Castle Combe in a couple of weeks before we head to the Isle of Man.”