Wout van Aert's infected elbow turned out to be far more serious than previously thought, as his Visma-Lease a Bike team confirmed he underwent surgery to prevent the bacteria from causing a body-wide crisis called sepsis.
Sepsis occurs when the immune system overreacts to an infection, leading to a fever, increased heart rate and, if not treated, can lead to organ dysfunction and even septic shock, which can be deadly.
"Intervention was necessary. Otherwise, he could have contracted sepsis," said Mathieu Heijboer, the team's Head of Performance, according to Sporza.
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Van Aert injured his elbow in a training crash before starting the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné. It became clear that something was off when the normally powerful time trialist was dropped early on during the team time trial on stage 3.
However, Van Aert rebounded to win stage 5 in a bunch sprint, while wearing only a small bandage on his wound.
The success was short-lived, and he dropped out before stage 6 because of the pain in his elbow.
"When Wout withdrew from the Tour Auvergne-Rhônes-Alpes last Friday, his elbow was already swollen. There were also already signs of inflammation at that time," he added.
The first sign that something more insidious was afoot came on Tuesday, when Van Aert missed the start of Visma-Lease a Bike's pre-Tour altitude training camp.
Doctors had put Van Aert on a course of antibiotics, but instead of improving, his situation became more serious.
"Instead of the inflammation getting better, it only got worse," Heijboer said.
The infection had developed into an abscess, and Van Aert began spiking a fever and could no longer bend his elbow.
"On Monday, the wound was surgically cleaned during a check-up," Heijboer confirmed.
After the surgery, Van Aert began another course of antibiotics and began to finally improve.
"Wout has left the hospital, but he still has to go back daily to have the wound checked. But he is doing much better now. Wout also sounded relieved when I spoke to him on the phone yesterday."
With the Tour de France no longer on his programme, the team will have to come up with a new plan for his season as well as find an eighth rider to help Jonas Vingegaard during the Tour de France.
"You can't call that 8th rider a replacement for Wout, because Wout is unique and you can't replace him one-to-one," Heijboer said.
"Wout played a very important role in our strategic plan. Moreover, he is simply a very important personality amidst the hustle and bustle of the Tour."
Visma-Lease a Bike are expected to announce their full Tour de France selection next week.
"We have several riders ready who are at a very high level," Heijboer said.
Cyclingnews has reached out to Visma-Lease a Bike for additional information regarding Van Aert's recovery.
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