Honda Racing has confirmed that TT legend John McGuinness will miss this year’s Isle of Man races following the serious injuries sustained at last weekend’s North West 200 road races in Northern Ireland.
The 23-time TT winner crashed his Fireblade at the high speed Primrose Hill section during qualifying and was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where he remains a patient.
McGuinness suffered a broken right tibia and fibula, four broken vertebrae and broken back ribs in the crash. Such was the extent of the injuries, surgeons were unable to plate the broken leg as originally planned and the veteran racer now faces a long road back to recover with an external fixator attached to the leg.
Speaking from his hospital bed, the 45-year-old said: “I really am truly overwhelmed with the amount of support and well wishes that have been flooding in since my accident at the North West 200 last Thursday. Both myself and the wife (Becky) have received so much support and I cannot thank the race fans, industry people, the medical teams and fellow racers enough; all your messages do help pull me through the dark hours.
“I’m still at the Royal Victoria Hospital undergoing various treatments for my leg injury; the fixator is still yet to be fitted as they don’t want to run the risk of infection, so at the moment it is day-by-day.
“I’m not going to lie, missing the TT this year is going to hurt, but I will be watching and keeping an eye on everything! Good luck to all the lads heading out there; if I am able to head over then of course I will be there, but at the moment everything is day-by-day and I just have to do what I can to recover and get better. It’s going to be a long road ahead, but I have a great support network around me, so I have to be patient and take each day as it comes. Thank you again!”
Honda withdrew team-mate Guy Martin from the North West 200 after the accident, in order to ascertain if a technical problem had caused the crash. The company has yet to announce if it will recruit a rider to replace McGuinness at the 2017 TT races.
