Michael Matthews’ injuries were even worse than first feared: Australian shares update six weeks after crash

“On March 5, I had a bad accident in training,” he began. “I had an open fracture in my right arm, severed tendons in my thumb, and I broke my left wrist and thumb, so I had to undergo several operations.”

“In Italy, I had surgery on my left arm straight away, and two days later I flew on to Belgium for surgery on the tendons in my right thumb,” Matthews continued. “On top of that, I also had a fractured eye socket. So it has been a huge process. We are now six weeks on, and fortunately I can move my fingers again.”

“It has taken a long time. For three weeks I couldn’t do any exercise at all, but after that I was able to start walking a little and go to the gym. Four weeks after my crash, I was allowed to start on the indoor trainer, and my body slowly started moving again. By now, I’ve been able to ride outside three times,” he explained in mid-April.

“I want to thank everyone for the messages I received. Because I couldn’t move my fingers for several weeks, I wasn’t able to reply to everyone. That made it difficult. But I have been thinking about your messages and about the support I received from the team.”

“It has been a difficult period, because I crashed just as I had finished a big training block for the important races,” concluded Matthews, who also shared several photos on social media showing the damage he suffered in the nasty crash.