Karl Muggeridge blessé

[theophil]

WORLD SUPERBIKES News Wednesday, 29th March 2006

Winston Ten Kate Honda rider Karl Muggeridge has been left with fractured vertebrae after an unusual accident, which occurred during a slow-down lap, on Wednesday morning at the third and final day of testing at Valencia.

The Australian was immediately taken to hospital, where preliminary checks fortunately showed that he is in no danger of further injury, but Karl is nonetheless expected to spend one month immobile while the bone heals - meaning the former World Supersport champion will miss the next round of the 2006 Corona Extra World Superbike championship, also at Valencia, on April 23.

"Not the best day of my life, but I guess this sort of thing can happen in our job," shrugged 'Muggas' who has had more than his fair share of big accidents since joining WSBK in 2005. "I knew I was hurt straight away, the pain was quite strong. Now all I can do is to relax so that I can be back in top form as soon as possible. Tomorrow I will go to a specialist in Switzerland and we will see what the latest situation is. I want to thank the doctors from the Clinica Mobile who have been wonderful today."

"The x-ray in the hospital has shown a fracture on the D12, twelfth spine, and on the L2, lumbar 2," explained Doctor Corbascio. "These two vertebrae are really important; therefore I believe Karl will not be able to step back on a bike much before 40 days have passed. He will surely miss the Valencia race and after some more medical control we will evaluate if he will be in the best condition to race in Monza in the first weekend of May. In this period he will have to wear a cast which will totally immobilise the damaged area."

Meanwhile, Muggeridge's team-mate, James Toseland, didn't escape Wednesday morning uninjured either - the Briton hitting his head hard after a spectacular highside. However, the tough 2004 world champion - who had been battling chatter problems during the first two days - was able to return to action in the afternoon.

"I took a big hit this morning, I felt like I got punched by Mike Tyson, but I was a little lucky and now I feel better. I also hope Karl will feel better soon," said James, who finished the test in just 16th. "That was really a difficult test. We found some difficulties during the long turn. We don't have good grip and that's where we lose most of our time; we're not capable of using all the power we have. I guess we just have to work hard."

"Pretty bad ending of a test for us with two riders in the medical centre, after just half of the morning session," admitted team manager Ronald Ten Kate. "James got a big hit on the head which left him not in the best possible condition for the afternoon session. But Karl got the worst of it and has fractured his second vertebra, but he should be back with us in a month. It happened during the in-lap, which is strange, because he was not pushing that hard.

"None of our riders used qualifying tyres in the morning and this is the explanation why we are a bit behind in the standings. I am sure we could have been in the top five or six with both riders because most of the problems we had in the first two days were almost solved," added the Dutchman.

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