Jett Lawrence provides ankle injury update after Thunder Valley sweep
· Yahoo Sports
Jett Lawrence has won the last four motos of the Pro Motocross series despite suffering a limited range of motion in his right ankle with an injured talus, a bone that connects the leg to the foot.
The location and importance of the talus often means this can be a career-ending injury. It may also create obstacles of varying degrees.
Visit lej.life for more information.
Lawrence addressed the media after sweeping the motos and winning the Thunder Valley National in Lakewood, Colorado, last week, and he and provided an update.
"To be fair, my ankle felt really, really good this weekend," Lawrence said. "I still can't ride normal. I just have a little bit less of pain. Every now and then, I still jar it a bit, but it was good, honestly. Even after walking around, it's getting a lot better, which I'm happy about because It means I don’t have to struggle with walking like I did before, so I think it's looking positive."
Following his 1-1 victory in the Hangtown Classic, in Round 2 of the Motocross season, Lawrence limped noticeably onto and off the podium. When he entered the media tent for post-race comments, the pain was still obvious.
"With most of these talus injuries, I'm told it's just a waiting game," HRC Honda team manager Lars Lindstrom said at Thunder Valley. "We just have to wait, get through as much as we can."
But while Lawrence, Lindstrom, and the team wait for improvement, Lawrence continues to dominate the competition, much as he's done during his entire career.
The range of movement isn't there, but with the first three rounds in the Western half of the country, Lawrence has been able to rely on the ministrations of Dr. H. Rey Gubernick, 'Dr. G' to many in the paddock, a renowned sports chiropractor and physical therapist.
"I think if each weekend we can just make some good strides in improving it where it feels like it's kind of going back to normal," Lawrence continued. "Even during this week, when 'G' adjusted my ankle before, when he would pull on it, it only pops the left side of my foot and my right side was still stuck in. It was still pretty stiff to go side to side. This week we were able to get both sides to pop and a lot more range of movement."
Align Media
In deep ruts, it is impossible to go fast without dabbing a foot. / Align Media
As with many dirt bike injuries, a risk remains of worsening the injury with another incident. With the talus, that risk comes from planting the foot to help stabilize the rider in the turns. Tapping the foot, or dabbing it, on the ground provides stability.
"I've dabbed a few times and it gives this kind of sharp pain up my ankle into my calf, but I try not to dab it too much because it takes a few turns to kind of flare it back down, get it back to normal," Lawrence said. "So, I try not to, I've been pretty well with dabbing it and when I have dabbed it, I've been really light with it. Try not to stomp it as like you normally would. So yeah, it definitely would affect me for a few turns, but it recovers fairly quickly; thankfully."
According to Lindstrom, Lawrence did not practice much during the week between Hangtown and Thunder Valley. Instead of making long sessions during the week or in Friday's Press Day practice, Lawrence worked on his starts after completing Lap 1 in Moto 1 of the season opener at Fox Raceway in 11th and Moto 2 in eighth. He rode forward to finish fourth and third respectively, finishing on the overall podium in third.
That was Lawrence's worst finish since being scored sixth overall at Ironman Raceway last year after he incurred a lap penalty in the first moto, dropping him from third to 17th. Without the penalty, he would have won the overall.
At Thunder Valley, he earned the holeshot in both motos and led every lap.
Still less than 100 percent (neither Lawrence nor the team really want to put a number to it because of the subjectivity), Lawrence continues to do "Lawrence things," i.e. dominate, and that speaks volumes about his level of dominance in the outdoor series.