Jake Nicholls is facing at least a three-month wait until he can start riding again after serious complications to the broken tibia he sustained in September.
The 28-year-old Buildbase Honda rider had been working towards a return to racing at the opening round of the Maxxis ACU British Motocross Championship at FatCat on March 10.
However, he suffered a bone infection that his surgeon said could have potentially resulted in amputation with the result that he will sit out the first two rounds and could miss more.
“I’ve been told I won’t be riding a bike until April at the earliest,” he said. “When I broke it I thought I’d be back on a bike for Christmas because they said with a rod in my leg the fracture should be stable after three months and it was healing really well.”
Jake was a clear favourite to win the Maxxis MX1 championship before he broke his leg two weeks before the final round. Now his dream of taking the 2019 title has been shattered.
“It’s so frustrating because I was doing all right until the infection. It’s a disaster. When I went on Thursday I told the surgeon I was hoping to be racing at the first British championship round, even if only got back on a bike 10 days before.
“He just said ‘I’ll be totally honest with you, your leg will not be strong enough to withstand putting it out going around a turn until at least April’. This guy is a family friend but he’s also a sports guy so I have to listen to what he’s saying.
“I’m absolutely gutted. It’s another year that I’m not going to win the British title. I had hoped that I might be all right. I will make a full recovery but obviously I’m going to have to wait.”
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