New JGRMX/Yoshimura Suzuki rider Joey Savatgy suffered a big crash last Saturday during practice at the AUS-X Open in Melbourne, Australia. He came up short in a double-on-to-tabletop section (Joey claimed via his instagram account that he hit neutral) and he and his bike bounced hard into the face of the table top. Joey suffered a broken heel in the crash, and that's always a complicated injury.
Over the last two days we have spoken with Joey's agent Lucas Mirtl and JGRMX team manager Jeremy Albrecht for the latest.
Luckily, Joey was able to get on a commercial plane and fly home from Australia, as many worried on Saturday that he would not be able to fly until he had underwent surgery in Australia to stabilize the injury. After the flight, he underwent surgery last night in California.
Early reports are the injury might not be as bad as first feared, but a timetable to return to training and then riding and racing isn't yet known. It's possible Joey could be back before the end of Monster Energy Supercross, or perhaps he will be back in time for the start of Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, but he definitely won't be lining up for Anaheim 1 or any other rounds early in the season.
JGR recently announced Fredrik Noren would race 450SX for the team, and 250SX riders Jimmy Decotis and Alex Martin are on tap to do selected 450SX rounds.