Crutchlow out of Australia MotoGP with ankle injury, requires surgery

Cal Crutchlow will miss the remainder of the Australian MotoGP round after his heavy in the second free practice session in which he sustained a broken ankle which requires surgery.

The LCR Honda rider suffered a heavy fall at Turn 1 with 15 minutes remaining in FP2 and was immediately taken to the Phillip Island medical centre for assessment. The track medical team confirmed the British rider suffered a bimalleolar fracture and anterior tibia right ankle fracture.

Crutchlow has been taken to hospital in Melbourne as he requires ‘immediate surgery’ and will miss the remainder of the Australia race weekend.

It marks the first race the 32-year-old will miss since the 2014 Argentina MotoGP, when the British rider was forced out after undergoing surgery to his right hand following a one week earlier at Circuit of the Americas.

With the final flyaway race just over one week away in Malaysia time will also be against Crutchlow to be fit for Sepang given the severity of the surgery.

Last time out Crutchlow finished runner-up to Marc Marquez at the Japanese MotoGP to tighten his grip on fifth place in the riders’ championship and top independents honour with a 15-point gap on Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco and Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci.

Crutchlow becomes the third regular MotoGP rider to be absent from the Australia race following Jorge Lorenzo’s withdrawal after surgery on his left wrist, while Tito Rabat continues to recover from a broken leg sustained at Silverstone in August.