Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome is facing a long recovery from injuries sustained in a crash during training last week. According to The Times, the 40-year-old sustained an injury to his heart that was life-threatening.
Froome crashed after hitting a kerb and smashing head-first into a road sign at 48kph while training near Saint-Raphaël in the south of France and had to be airlifted to the hospital in Toulon.
In addition to the already public broken bones in his spine and ribs, his wife Michelle told The Times that Froome had sustained a rupture of the lining around his heart, the pericardium.
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The Sainte-Anne Toulon hospital specialises in thoracic surgery, which Froome underwent last week to repair the injury to his heart.
"It was obviously a lot more serious than some broken bones," Michelle Froome told The Times. "He's fine, but it's going to be a long recovery process. He won't be riding a bike for a while. Chris is happy for you to share this because people need to understand what is going on."
Froome's team, Israel-Premier Tech, listed his injuries as a collapsed lung, five broken ribs, and a lumbar vertebrae fracture. With the potentially fatal pericardial tear, it is unlikely that he will extend his professional cycling career beyond the end of his contract on December 31, 2025.
It is the second major injury the Briton has had in his career. After winning the Tour de France four times between 2013 and 2017, the Vuelta a España twice (2011, 2017), and the 2018 Giro d'Italia, he crashed heavily while previewing the time trial course at the 2019 Critérium du Dauphiné.
In that incident, Froome fractured his femur, elbow, ribs, and pelvis. While he returned to competition in 2020, he was unable to regain his previous level and left his long-time team, Ineos, for Israel-Premier Tech. His best result since then has been a third place on the 2022 Tour de France stage to Alpe d'Huez, won by Tom Pidcock.
Froome's last race was the Tour de Pologne, where he finished 68th overall.
