Mathieu Van Der Poel had a knee “minor” surgery last Saturday

The team considered it was the right moment to do it parellel to his back injury recovering process

Mathie Van Der Poel is still recovering of his invertebral disc swelling and in the meantime he had a minor surgery last Sarturday in his knee, which in principle would not have to affect his coming back to racing cause as the team management declared that “speculations about whether it will take weeks or months are groundless. It is currently impossible to predict how fast the swelling will disappear. The treating doctors agree that it will effectively disappear with rest. That’s the most important thing, both for Mathieu and for the team. He will only start his road season when the injury is over, and when he’s been able to prepare for it properly. At this moment it makes no sense to pinpoint a date on it. We will only do that if it does”.

Alpecin Fenix has explained that he needed this intervention that took place at the AZ Herentals hospital, because “in a previous crash, a tear had appeared in the capsule of the kneecap. And as a result of that tear, scar tissue had formed in which a hardened strand scrubbed against the bone. Up until now this has been painless and hasn’t bothered him, but now was the right time to proactively take it away. That is why Van der Poel was operated on last Saturday and a positive evaluation followed after a check-up with Dr. Toon Claes. This operation is unrelated to the back injury from which van der Poel is currently recovering“.

Van Der Poel has underlined one more time that “I can’t say much about it, it is what it is. Because of that back pain I haven’t been able to reach my desired level since the Tour. I just want that to be in the past. The only remedy turns out to be a longer rest period. It would therefore be foolish to interrupt this period again and we all agree on that. I’m not worried about the future of my career, but of course it frustrates me now not knowing how long this rest period will last. We’ll only set a date and goals if we can do so in a substantiated manner. Until then, I’ll do what I can.”

ReiLopez

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