Breaking News: Crawford Injured

Current MX Nationals MX2 red plate holder, Husqvarna Australia’s Nathan Crawford (who won last weekend’s round of the championship at Echo Valley) will heartbreakingly see his 2016 title aspirations amount to nought after taking a handlebar to his abdomen and sustaining lacerations to his spleen and kidney in a practice crash earlier this week.

“I copped a handlebar in the stomach,” said Crawford, “I felt pretty winded but started to get all the oxygen back and noticed a little bit of pain down near the left side of my tummy, right down near the bottom. When I got home I ended up peeing a lot of blood. At the hospital I got all my scans done and basically they told me I’m not well enough to ride, and I definitely feel that physically I’m not strong enough at the moment in the tummy area to ride somewhere like Coolum. I don’t even think I could go for a jog right now, so racing’s out of the question this weekend.”

It’s a heartbreaking blow for the FC250-mounted rider – who looks at Coolum as his favourite track of the season – as just last weekend he regained the red plate in the MX2 class, and currently holds an 11-point lead over DPH Motorsports Yamaha’s Jed Beaton. Crawford, however, remains philosophical about the situation.

“It’s tough,” Crawford continued. “I put in everything this year, and obviously I do one hundred percent every year but this year was just going really well. I showed lots of promise all year and put myself into a really good position going into Coolum. As tough as it is not to be able to race and to give up the championship, obviously my health is a lot more important than that trophy. The CT scan showed that I lacerated my spleen and my kidney. Obviously it’s pretty severe; the laceration to my spleen is dangerous, but the one to my kidney is the one they are most cautious about. They don’t want me doing any more damage there.”

Crawford has been advised that the recovery period before he can participate in “contact sports” could be around six weeks, which may rule him out of the first round of the 2016 Australian Supercross Championship.

“My main concern now is getting healthy and getting back there for supercross,” Crawford explained. “I’ve been told it’s six weeks before I can do any contact sports, so I might be missing the first round, but I’ll definitely be there for the second, and the rest of the season.”

When asked if he had a tip for the title which would be decided in his absence, Crawford chose KTM’s Caleb Ward, stating: “Caleb, all day. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think anyone’s going to beat him around there this weekend. I would have liked to, but seeing as I’m not going to be there, hopefully he goes 1-1. And if I get out of hospital in time, I’m going straight up there to watch.”