Team Honda HRC’s Cole Seely underwent surgery yesterday to have a plate and four screws removed from the pinky finger in his right hand, the team announced today. Seely initially sustained the injury during a practice session at Pala Raceway in 2016, which sidelined him the final seven rounds of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship that year.
Seely originally wanted to have the surgery immediately following the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross season, but after being selected to represent Team USA at the Motocross of Nations, he elected to postpone the surgery. Per the team, Seely is expected to make a full recovery in three weeks, which will rule him out of the Monster Energy Cup next Saturday.
“I was planning on having the surgery done right after the motocross season ended but obviously had to postpone it when I was selected for the Motocross of Nations,” Seely explained. “It was a really minor procedure, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do because the hardware has been bothering me for a while now. It was hard to make a tight fist and would get sore after races, so I think this will help. I also want to take some time off, which is why I decided to do it now and miss Monster Cup. I’ll have a couple weeks to relax, recover, and let my body rest before diving full-speed into supercross training.”
With Seely and Ken Roczen both sidelined for the event, the team announced today that GEICO Honda’s Christian Craig will join 2016 MXGP World Champion Tim Gajser on the team. Craig filled-in for the injured Roczen on the team during the 2017 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship.
“After spending the entire outdoor season with them, we have a really cool relationship,” he said, “so I’m happy to get the opportunity to keep racing the CRF450R. I’ve always liked MEC because it’s a different format and is exciting for both racers and fans. The team and I started testing a couple weeks ago, and everything has been going awesome. I’m used to the bike, but we just had to tweak a couple things to change it over for supercross. I’ll have a couple more weeks of practice, and then we’ll be in Las Vegas!”
