Jurgen Van den Broeck's knee injury has turned out to be more serious than thought, and he is expected to be out eight to ten weeks – if he returns to racing at all this year.
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The Lotto Belisol leader crashed in the finale of the fifth stage of the Tour de France, and the next morning doctors drained fluid and blood out of his knee. He flew home to Belgium for further examinations.
Those examinations showed “a partial crack of the posterior cruciate ligament, a partial crack of the medial ligament, an injury of the cartilage, a bone bruise and a bruise of the patella tendon was concluded. Apart from that also blood was drawn two times out of the knee,” the team said on its website.
He will require surgery for the cartilage damage, but that can't take place until next week. He still has open wounds and abrasions on the which could lead to an infection, and he seems certain to miss the Vuelta a Espana.
“You train all year and then in one minute, one second, everything is over,” he said, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.