{"id":706219,"date":"2026-01-19T11:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706219\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T11:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:03:16","slug":"wout-van-aert-clarifies-injury-after-joint-fracture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/706219\/","title":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert clarifies injury after \u2018joint fracture\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wout van Aert<\/a> has spoken publicly about his condition this week after a crash in the Mol cyclo-cross race on 2 January abruptly ended his winter season. The Belgian rider suffered a tear in his ankle and has been working through rehabilitation. Van Aert addressed his recovery during a team day with Visma | Lease a Bike<\/a>, speaking to the media.<\/b>The injury brought his cyclo-cross campaign to a halt on Friday, with surgery taking place just one day later. Since then, there has been a period of little news, before Van Aert suddenly reappeared on Strava<\/a>, riding outdoors again for the first time since the crash. He also shared pictures of his (painful) ankle <\/a>on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Van Aert then travelled to Spain soon after that initial training ride and spoke there in more detail about the injury. \u201cIt probably looks worse than it is. Walking is still painful at times and I have to be careful not to take too many steps,\u201d he said, using a brace for support.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"wout-van-aert\"\/‘That my foot fits in the shoe is a good sign,’ said Van Aert<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been good that I\u2019ve already gotten some time on the bike \u2014 and it feels more or less fine,\u201d Van Aert continued from La Nucia, Spain. \u201cIt\u2019s always amazing to be back on the bike. It\u2019s more or less okay. The fact that my foot fits in the shoe is a good sign. It still goes up and down a bit. We\u2019re working daily to improve it. Since I started riding again, I\u2019m confident I\u2019ll recover quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big question, of course, is whether the fall in Mol will affect the Visma rider\u2019s preparation for the rest of the season. \u201cIt certainly ruined my cyclo-cross winter,\u201d Van Aert admitted honestly. \u201cI was ambitious for the races that were still coming. It was a big blow personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, he\u2019s looking to the future with hope. \u201cI hope that in a few months I can say it didn\u2019t ruin my season. The new year has only just begun. I hope time will be on my side so I\u2019m hopefully ready for the upcoming season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"wout-van-aert-3\"\/Van Aert shares more details<\/p>\n

Speaking to writers, the Belgian provided further explanation of the injury. \u201cThey call it a joint fracture (a fracture involving the joint, ed.), and I had surgery the next day. Since then it\u2019s gone relatively smoothly and I could already get on the rollers quite quickly. Right now, when I\u2019m on the bike without intensity, it\u2019s okay. My foot is basically locked in the cycling shoe, so that\u2019s manageable,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormal life is more complicated,\u201d Van Aert added. \u201cWalking takes a lot of energy, and when I put my foot down, the swelling comes back.\u201d Exactly when he can return to higher-intensity training is still unclear. \u201cThe fracture is held together with a screw and the ligaments around it need recovery, so we\u2019re looking at it day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMentality was pretty tough,\u201d Van Aert said, reflecting on how disappointment has featured in recent seasons. \u201cI felt myself improving throughout the cyclo-cross season toward the races that were still to come. Luckily, I could get on the rollers quickly so there wasn\u2019t much time where I could only lie around. That helps, knowing you\u2019re not losing too much fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this being yet another physical setback in recent years, Van Aert remains focused. \u201cOf course you get fed up for a moment, but after a few days you think back to the moments riding among the crowd. Then you realise again what you\u2019re doing it for,\u201d the popular Belgian rider concluded. Van Aert is expected to race throughout the full spring, the Tour and the Vuelta later this year, and he is normally set to make his comeback at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wout van Aert has spoken publicly about his condition this week after a crash in the Mol cyclo-cross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,184882,79,16,15,11186,34351],"class_list":{"0":"post-706219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-idl-productions","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-visma-lease-a-bike","14":"tag-wout-van-aert"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115921433633801174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}