Eddy Merckx undergoes eighth hip operation as son Axel shares positive update

Eddy Merckx has been in hospital since late March. The Belgian cycling icon was dealing with an infected hip and had to undergo yet another operation — his eighth on the same hip in a short space of time. Son Axel Merckx has now shared a positive update with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

Eight operations on the same hip takes a heavy toll, especially on an 81-year-old, as Axel knows well. "He's doing fine, but of course it wears on the body. He's a strong man, but at that age you don't recover like someone of 20, 30 or 40," he told the paper.

A new infection was a significant setback for The Cannibal. "His rehabilitation was just going better. He had started riding his rollers a bit. He could walk on a treadmill." That rehabilitation will now have to start from scratch once he has fully recovered from the latest procedure.

Things went wrong suddenly in March. "Everything was going well. But out of nowhere, one night he started having trouble. The doctors performed a puncture and discovered a bacterial infection. Quite unexpected." Although it is far from the first problem with his hip, this time it was a different issue.

"It's a different bacterium from last time. They first tried to treat it with antibiotics. That helped, but not enough." A full hip replacement was not an option for the 81-year-old former professional. Instead, his hip was flushed — though there is no guarantee it will be sufficient. "It will help, but the question is whether it will help enough to clear the infection," Axel said.

The constant setbacks are starting to weigh on Eddy. "The last two years have been very tough. He has been able to ride much less — or almost not at all. That's difficult when you've been active your whole life." But the sport itself never strays far from the heart of the most successful rider of all time.

"When they broadcast a race, he watches. He didn't see the Ronde van Limburg because he was recovering, but I got him on the phone after the finish and the first thing he wanted to know was who had won." That passion for the sport will never fade. "Racing has always had a huge place in his life, and it always will," Axel concluded.