Cycling luminary Eddy Merckx underwent successful hip surgery on Tuesday and will begin rehabilitation on Wednesday, the Herentals Hospital announced in a press release.
The 79-year-old fell while out cycling and fractured his hip on Monday. He was taken to the Herentals Hospital near Antwerp, where fellow-cycling champion Remco Evenepoel recently had to go after falling following a collision with a bpost vehicle, and was quickly treated.
“This is a typical and common fracture of the neck of the femur,” the establishment wrote.
To treat this injury, a total hip prosthesis was fitted on Tuesday afternoon by Dr Mike Tengrootenhuysen and Prof. Dr Steven Claes. “The operation went smoothly, and a full recovery is expected,” the hospital said. Merckx will have to stay “at least one night” to recover from the operation, it added.
His rehabilitation is due to begin on Wednesday “with the possibility of immediately putting all the weight of the body on the operated leg.”
“Full recovery will usually take a few months, but fortunately for Eddy Merckx, cycling is an excellent rehabilitation activity, which can be resumed after just a few weeks.”
Widely considered the greatest cycling of all-time, Merckx crashed on Monday in Hombeek, near Mechelen, during a cycling outing. No one else was involved in the incident. Merckx slipped on his own, said his wife Claudine.
The accident happened around 1:20 p.m. when Merckx lost control on a slippery road near a railroad crossing. He doesn’t remember exactly how it happened, but he landed directly on his right hip. “I wasn’t going fast, but the road was slippery,” Merckx said. “Then suddenly, I was on the ground. I landed right on my hip, and I knew immediately something was broken.”
Although he’s in pain, Merckx is happy it wasn’t worse. “I’m in a lot of pain, but I realize how lucky I was,” he said. “The train barrier wasn’t down, no train was coming. I lay there for a while before people helped me. It could have been much worse.”
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