Nicky Hayden’s broken collar bone (suffered while training on a motocross bike this weekend) brings to mind the haste in which racers return to action after broken bones these days.
While a broken collar bone can heal reasonably well in four weeks time (for a young, healthy male), many racers will have this injury surgically plated (as I believe Hayden has done) in order to return to racing almost immediately. There is a problem with this approach, however.
A plated bone may not heal as well as one that is allowed to heal naturally over time. Moreover, landing on a plated collar bone, for instance, can cause much more serious damage (picture the screws being ripped from the bone) than the original injury. Something similar to this happened to Anthony Gobert years ago. You can end up with an injury that bothers you for the rest of your life.
Of course, guys like Nicky Hayden are paid a lot of money to ride, not to heal, so there is pressure to get back on the bike as soon as possible and take advantage of the surgery techniques that facilitate this. Sometimes, however, riders learn the hard way that they should have allowed themselves more time off following an injury. Let’s hope this is not Hayden’s experience.
