Jett Lawrence's big crash at Hangtown has suddenly flipped the storyline in AMA Pro Motocross, with Chase Sexton now holding the red plate and Jett, the defending AMA 450 Motocross Champion, sitting sixth in the standings. But the damage could have been worse for Jett if some other contenders weren't sitting on the sidelines, unable to take advantage, as in Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac. Both Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing riders are out with thumb injuries at the moment.
Webb spoke with David Izer this week for an episode of DMXS Radio. You can listen to the entire podcast here, where Webb also talks about his relationship with Lawrence, and what it was like to battle him for a title, his thoughts on Adam Cianciarulo's recent retirement, and more.
For this piece, we'll focus on Izer and Webb talking injury and recovery.
DMXS Radio: How did your surgery go?
Cooper Webb: Oh, everything went well, man. I raced Salt Lake and then flew Sunday to Vail, Colorado and, got surgery done there at the Stedman Clinic. It was great, super easy. Got in Monday morning right away, [had] no issues and was able to leave that next day back to Florida. Next Monday will be three weeks. I'm in a pretty big brace for the first four weeks, no movement or anything at all. They just let it heal and then at four weeks, I can start moving it a little bit here and there and then at six weeks we can start moving it pretty much full on then. And that's when I'm hoping to be back on the dirt bike around that six week mark. Definitely not trying to push it, but also I want to try to be back as soon as I can.
Was it a full tear, a partial tear? I mean, how did they even fix a UCL tear? What's the procedure here?
So it started off as just a grade 2 is what they call it. So there's grade 1 and 2 and grade 3 is where you basically rip the ligament off the bone. Grade 2 is what I started at, basically anything over a 60 percent tear of the ligament itself. It's still basically holding on by a thread. A grade one is just a slight tear. So I had a grade 2 and it was holding on by a thread and obviously just over time and impact and all that, it turned into a grade 3 which required surgery. So they went in and what they told me is they pin it up against the bone and that'll stay in there, you know, for basically ever. I've actually done it to my right thumb. So I've been there and done that, unfortunately. So, yeah, now it's just waiting for it to heal up.
Well the thumb is pretty important to holding on to a dirt bike. So when you did this in Birmingham, you obviously knew you injured it right then and right there. But how much grip strength did you lose? I mean, I looked up the UCL injury and one of the biggest symptoms is no grip strength.
I knew right then and there when I did it. I did it in the heat race in Birmingham with Jett [Lawrence] when I had clipped the back him and kind of high-sided to the right. It is basically a hyperextension where your thumb basically hits your wrist. Um, and that I think I caught it on the bar and that's what happened. So, at the time it hurt and I actually felt like I tore my UCL right then and there. So, in the race it did affect grip strength a lot, but to be fair, right then and there with the adrenaline and on race day it isn't as bad. Once I got back home, we got the MRI done and we knew right away. So I basically kind of had to adapt my riding a little bit, like I wasn't able to use the clutch. So I had to kind of learn how to ride without the clutch. Also, the way I was gripping the bike, right? So, you know, little things, obviously the whoops were like the big thing for me that were a killer. Anything that would jolt it really hard, so like whoops were really bad, and then if you landed in like really bad breaking bumps, that would be bad. And then believe it or not like my right handers [turns] because when you turning right, you're putting a lot of pressure on your left, those hurt worse than left. So, the grip strength got affected and that's kind of where the arm pump started happening was, you know, I wasn't really able to hold on very tight with my left. So I would be holding on super hard with my right and then I would just end up pumping up and having to fight that. So that was actually the biggest struggle. Like the pain definitely wasn't great, but it was actually honestly the arm pump that was really frustrating.
At Philly, I feel like it was starting, I wouldn't say better, but during the off-weekend after Saint Louis, I actually didn't ride but one time before Foxborough, and I feel like it allowed it to heal and Foxborough was great. It also started depending on how the tracks were. If you could jump the whoops, that was awesome for me because I couldn't even skim the whoops with my thumb, from a pain tolerance and just holding on and everything. Softer tracks were better on it because if they were softer bumps that really helped. It was good, like I said, to be able to win races after that and fight for the title, tooth and nail and all that. It was still good enough to get the job done, you know. Unfortunately, like as it got worse and especially, I think Philly was when I did it, I crashed with Jason [Anderson], I believe, I finished it off there. So that was a bit of a bummer. Those next two rounds were really, really painful. You know, what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, that's for sure.
Then you have like RC and people in booth giving you shit about the whoops. You're like, I'm running with one thumb and they don't know that at the time.
Yeah. You know, it was tough. I'm never one to really mention an injury and I felt like in the situation I was in, I was still going fast enough to do my job and it wasn't really affecting things and I didn't really wanna make a big deal out of it or have the media even catch wind. I didn't want anybody to know that I was hindered at all. I think people started noticing. Like we would cut my grip a certain way. I'd be wearing tape and I think people started to catch on, and that's when the rumors started kind of coming around and yeah you wanna give them insight so that way they can do their job. But at the same time I didn't want anybody to know. I think it was one of the things that we gotta be mindful of, hey, you're gonna have critics and you're gonna have people telling you what you can and can't do. And I just knew in my mind what I was dealing with. So I didn't let it bother me. I mean, in my mind it, it was almost like I'd be making an excuse. At that time and moment, I'm racing [Chase] Sexton for points and I'm racing Jett for points. And if they know I'm hurt, if I was in their shoes, it would give me mental advantage knowing my competitor is hurt. I know he's gonna get arm pump or he's gonna not be able to finish strong. I would know, hey, I got this guy on the ropes type thing. So that's where I feel like a lot of people might not relate to that or understand that, but knowing how strong Jett is and especially mentally how strong he is, I didn't want him to catch a single glimpse of that I was not firing at all on all cylinders. So that was my big thing behind it.
Can you still train?
So I've been able to run no problem. So that's been fun. I'm not much of a runner, so I actually have a goal. I wanna run a half marathon before I'm back. So that'll be fun. I can get in the gym and I can do stationary bicycle and I can run. So I'm actually pretty fortunate to be able to do that and then the brace, I'm able to take it off and shower and then I can do therapy on my wrist and my fingers at the moment. Most of the time when you're in a cast for an extended amount of time, everything shuts off, right? So now your wrists aren’t moving, your fingers aren't moving, your thumb ain't moving and you’ve got to rehab everything. So, I'm hoping at that four to five week mark that I can get out of this brace basically start moving my thumb, then I can start PT on the thumb.
So ideally, how many weeks would you like to be back on the bike before you felt comfortable enough to line up at a national? Like how many are you to get back into shape and to get back in time?
I really don't know. One tough thing about is like, because of the injury, I didn't do any motocross testing. We've done zero testing.
Start from scratch?
I'm starting from scratch so that I feel like is gonna slow me down a little bit just in the simple fact of, I know the guys will have a great bike, but I'm gonna have to give myself a few days of testing. I haven't ridden an outdoor track since the first week I came here back in August of last year. I think I did two days of motocross and that was really it. It just depends. I think, if I'm able to hop on the bike and the biggest thing is I told them is I just don't want to be in pain. If I can get on the bike with no pain, then we go from there. So it's hard for me to put a timeline on it. The doc wants me to do a week or so of turn track to just really make sure that it's good to go. So, I think realistically the last three is kind of the timeline. Come back and do the last three nationals and the SMX. But I'm pushing for sooner than that. I would love to be back for Spring Creek or before that.
SMX is the big picture, right? You’re obviously out of the championship outdoors. That's not gonna matter. But SMX, you jump right back in there where you left off as a runner up in supercross and that would be the bigger picture.
For sure. I mean, I'd love to come back for those last three and have some good results and, you know, like if I could land on the podium at some point in those last three nationals, I'd be extremely happy with that and then go into SMX with, you know, having like a good supercross bike. We can kind of come up with a hybrid setting like these tracks are and go after that SMX championship. I think the unfortunate part now I'll be coming in, you know, points back just from simply missing the motocross side of things. But you never know. And then that's honestly something now too, like, maybe we do rush back and just worry about collecting points and build into it. I'm not too sure. We were gonna talk more at that basically, that four week mark, then, as a team, we ‘ve got to decide what makes the most sense moving forward long term.
Listen to the full Webb interview at DMXSRadio
