Wait, what? This doesn’t happen. Ryan Dungey doesn’t get hurt! Now we have one of the most unexpected stories in a while. Not only is Dungey hurt, his injury came in a crash we saw him get up from and then rally back from outside the top twenty all the way up to fourth. That was followed by smiles on the podium and confident words in the post-race press conference. We had no idea this was coming for a multitude of reasons and a multitude of ways: Dungey never gets hurt, and Dungey didn’t even appear to be hurt this time.
Today we rang up Dungey’s trainer, Aldon Baker, to find out what happened. Baker explained that on Saturday after the race, Dungey told him his neck felt a little stiff on one side, but nothing too bad.
“On Sunday he felt even more stiff and he said maybe he should get a checkup,” Baker said. “I got him an appointment on Monday morning. There’s a chiropractor here and what I like about him is the guy always runs X-rays first. So the guy ran X-rays and said, ‘Hey there’s something not quite right here. So before I do anything I want you to get a CT scan.’ That came back that he has a fracture and also a herniated disc. You know, those [herniated discs] can be bad, but the fracture was the one where you say, ‘Oh my gosh we have a problem here.’”
This result was a surprise, so Dungey and Baker went for a second opinion yesterday. But as soon as that doctor saw the CT scan and X-rays, the damage was obvious. The doctor said Ryan should stay away from further chances of injury, which means no riding until it heals. His season was over just like that.
“We didn’t expect it,” Baker said. “We were really hoping to do what he always does, which is just keep working and getting better and stronger.”
The good news is the fracture isn’t displaced so Ryan doesn’t need surgery. He’ll have another X-ray in two weeks to make sure it’s healing and another CT scan in six weeks. He won’t be back on a bike until he gets a clear CT scan so he is, at best, six weeks out from riding again. After six weeks off, Baker thinks it would take a few more weeks back on the bike to be race ready. In other words, don’t expect him back for the rest of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross.
“You really don’t want to take chances with the neck,” Baker said, summing it up.
Good thing Dungey’s neck was stiff enough to make him go in for a checkup in the first place.
