Cal Crutchlow had to get back into his suit when he got the call from Yamaha to replace Andrea Dovizioso in the RNF. The Briton, retired from competition since 2020, works as a tester for the tuning fork factory, making him the ideal rider to fill the vacancy at the Forlí rider.
However, his return to the grand prix coincided with one of the few hat-tricks of the season, which caused him to suffer from one of his ankles . This is some discomfort that Cal has been dragging since 2018 , when the joint was destroyed precisely on Phillip Island. To make matters worse, the #35 suffered a hard crash at the last Thai Grand Prix.
“I had a review yesterday,” Crutchlow said on Thursday before the Australian Grand Prix. “I went to get some X-rays in Melbourne, at the hospital where I had surgery, just to check on his condition.”
“We believe that the bruises have inflamed the soft tissues and the nerve,” he explained, “because if I press on some areas, my foot and ankle hurt a lot.”
Despite the pain, Crutchlow believes he is fit for another race weekend. “Last week I did 20 hours on the bike, so it’s not like I can’t do anything, but it hurts. When I raced in Thailand I felt good, but it started to hurt after I finished the race.”
“If I move it in a certain way it’s very painful,” he added. “But nothing badly damaged. I was worried the plate had moved or something. But luckily it’s fine.”
“We’ll see this weekend when the bike starts moving at… I was going to say 350km/h, but ours will be around 320km/h,” he joked. “Adrenaline is the best for it.”
The Englishman can take a bite out of his teeth, because Yamaha’s idea was for him to take advantage of the week off to complete a test. “We had a test planned,” he revealed. “It was good, because I had a week off. I was supposed to do eight weeks in a row, and now it’s seven.”
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