Norco’s season is off to a rough start. One day after Lucas Cruz crashed in training at Fort William World Cup, braking his femur, its newly-signed star Greg Minnaar crashed twice during his race run. Cruz is already on the long road to recovery. Minnaar’s status remained, until an update on Thursday, a question mark.
The South African shared that his crashes left him with a Grade 3 shoulder separation. That’s the downgraded from this initial prognosis of a Grade 4 separation after seeing a shoulder specialist in Manchester. Either way, he’s added that there’s still some shards of bone hanging around the joints.
That’s not great news, but not the worst. It is apparently manageable enough that Minnaar is still considering racing next weekend in Poland. That will depend on what happens when he gets back on a bike for the first time since the crash.
“I’m just going to push forward. I don’t think surgery is needed just yet, if I want to carry on racing this season I need to to push on so that’s the plan. Hopefully we can be racing in Poland but I’ll know more on the weekend.”
Getting back between the tape in just about a week is ambitious. But the South African has been talking about this season like it may be his last. So he’s clearly motivated to try get something out of it. With two decades experience, you can bet its not his first rodeo when it comes to riding through injury.
“It’s never an easy one, I think the pain that shot through my shoulder caused the second crash and that’s what happens with the separation. It’s a feeling I’ve felt before and an injury I’ve had a couple times so hopefully I can get back racing as soon as possible.”
Lucas Cruz discharged from hospital
Norco also included an update from Canadian national champion Lucas Cruz. It sounds like surgery on his femur went well. The Pemberton, B.C. rider is already out of hospital, back on his feet and moving around the hospital, though getting back on a bike is a longer road.
“The pain is pretty severe right now but they say I can fully weight bear as soon as I want. I’ve already been doing stairs up and down, going for walks etc,” Cruz says. The hearty Canuck is already looking ahead to when he can be back riding.
“Of course you can’t help but think about the next race I’ll be at but at this point I’m just taking this rehab very seriously in every way so that I can be back with the team doing what I love. Thank you everyone for…
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