Injuries are beginning to take their toll on many countries leading up to the FIM Motocross of Nations in Assen. France will be without Romain Febvre, Italy is missing Antonio Cairoli, Belgium will not have the services of Clement Desalle, and so on.
At the final round of the FIM Motocross World Championship in China over the weekend, both Arnaud Tonus (Switzerland) and Kevin Strijbos (Belgium) sustained injuries that have left their status for the MXoN unclear (although it appears Strijbos will still attempt to race).
Tonus suffered a minor fracture to his left hand in a crash in qualifying, according to his Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha team and did not participate in the race on Sunday.
“I broke my hand yesterday in quali and couldn’t race today,” Tonus wrote on Instagram. “Man it’s tough to finish like this but overall it was a good season comming back from nowhere ending 5th in the championship. Thanks a lot to the team.”
Strijbos injured his shoulder in the first moto and withdrew from moto two. According to a post on social media, he still plans on racing in Assen.
"Had a huge crash in first moto and hurt my shoulder, so DNS second moto. Last GP of 2019 and maybe my last GP of my career didn't go as planned. It's sad but that's the way it is. We will see what's gonna happen in the future. I'm still motivated to put the work in to be good but it's just hard to find a team. If it was my last GP then I would like to thank everybody who helped me through the years, fans, teams, sponsors, friends, family… I will stay positive cause in two weeks there will be the ‘Nations in Assen and we go all in with Team Belgium!"
