Jett Lawrence has detailed the long recovery from his injury and even the complications that had him doubting if he could be back in time for outdoors or if he could be the same rider as before!
Speaking on the NBC show, a very honest Jett said: “Interesting and very painful process. Missing having a fully healthy ankle and not waking up in the morning with a stiff ankle until I get full range of motion back, i think it’s still going to be still a year or so. If I can just get away from my pain, I think I’ll be okay.
“But it definitely crosses your mind even when you’re laying in bed at night, your mind loves to play games with you and think, ‘will you be able to ride the same,’ ‘how long will it be painful for?’ All the questions you have to answer yourself over time. I dislocated my ankle and the tibia smashed the top of my talus and that is what really broke my talus into three. I ended up getting 11 screws and four pins then I had to go in for a second surgery and have a screw taken out. And also, one of the fragments rose up and my tibula was hitting it, I had to get that shaved down because I wouldn’t have been able to ride if I had that.”
“Kind of a scary moment for me, because we improved and improved and then hit a wall so I’m like, oh, it’s a little bit of a down spot. The biggest thing is the team around me that I have is so good. That’s sort of plan and action. You have to have that strength in that joint to be light a little bit with your feet, my left leg is taking most of the landings, braking, my right foot is a little difficult because it doesn’t have that full range downwards .So little things like that where it’s like, ahh, you just wish it could speed up a little bit!
“But I just want to be there for outdoors because I know if I can start with them and maybe not win the first one, all my mind will be on the championship. There’s another side where I really want to win the first round because it’s Pala and I have never lost there, overall wise. But my body and health is more important than winning one race at the start of the season.”
Johnny O’Mara said Jett has been riding for two months now, but as you can see, even Jett still has some question marks ahead of his return to racing and it might take some time to see him back to 100%. But at least, after maybe some doubt, he will be on the line at Pala ready to do battle once again!
