LCR Castrol Honda’s Cal Crutchlow is once again being forced to fight through the pain barrier at the GoPro British Grand Prix. The Coventry rider admitted, after securing a top-five spot on the opening day at Silverstone, that he “needs to have an operation”, with the ankle he badly damaged at the 2018 Australian Grand Prix appearing to be bothering him again.
The number 35 required surgery following his crash in Phillip Island, which consequently heavily affected his 2019 pre-season preparations. Now, he admits surgery will again be required but he’s left in a catch 22 scenario where he knows it will again hamper his preparations for the upcoming season.
When questioned how he could overcome his ankle troubles, Crutchlow said there was only one solution: “I know how to fix it: I need to have an operation. But when do I have time for an operation? At the end of the year again? If I have an operation then, it means I won’t be ready for the start of the year.”
Despite his injury woes, the Brit battled to fifth place on the combined timesheets at the close of day one; and even managed to dip beneath the two-minute barrier.
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— MotoGP™ ???????? (@MotoGP) August 23, 2019
“I’m satisfied enough. It was a hard day today, the track is in a really fast condition, which makes it quite physically demanding and it makes it quite difficult with the bike as there’s a lot of grip. We tried to take benefit of that today.”
“The track is still really bumpy, honestly speaking there is still a few bumps, but the grip is there. They’ve done a great job because we know the problem was not necessarily the bumps it was more the water drainage and we think they’ve fixed that. Luckily this weekend we’ll have a dry weekend but in general, they’ve done a great job. We just need to give them the information about the bumps on the track.”
One thing we do know is that Crutchlow is often at his best when his back is against the wall and injury is trying to hamper him. 42 years British fans have been waiting for a homegrown premier class victor, but he has told us before not to doubt him so why start now?