Returning to the MotoGP paddock for the first time since fracturing his right tibia and fibula in May, Alex Rins gave an update on his injuries in Austria.
The LCR Honda rider, who will switch to Monster Yamaha next season, explained that while he still has restricted mobility as the bones continue to heal, nerve pain is his biggest issue at present.
“For sure the mobility, I don’t have 100% of mobility, from the injured bones. But the thing that I’m struggling more with is the nerves on the feet,” Rins said.
“Half of the foot is hypersensitive, and now the rear part is like with no sensitivity, but if I touch hard with the finger, I feel like electric [shock].
“This is good news. It means that it’s alive and week after week, it’s recovering.
“But the problem is that I don’t feel improvement day by day. It’s more week by week, than day by day.”
Rins, who ended Honda’s victory drought at COTA this season, revealed he has been battling pain in the foot almost since the surgery.
“The last months, honestly I suffered a lot,” he said. “I felt a lot of pain in the foot from the nerves.
“Immediately after the surgery, they gave me an epidural, and the first hours were perfect, but then 5 hours after the surgery, I started to have cramps in the foot. So this was terrible. And then day by day, or week after week, these cramps went down. But I had like every 20 seconds, electrical. Couldn’t sleep.”
Reflecting on the accident itself, in the Mugello Sprint race, Rins explained that – like many Honda riders this season – he had lost the rear and was pitched into a highside while trying to line-up a pass.
“It was a highside,” Rins said. “I was a bit out of line, because in my head I was trying to carry a bit more speed, because I remember I had Aleix in front of me, and my feeling was that I was riding faster than him, so the idea was to exit quite close to overtake him after Arrabbiata 2.
“So I carried more speed, I opened the throttle more and I fly away. The unlucky thing is that I landed with my knees and I entered backwards in the gravel. So this was the problem. You cannot prepare your body for the impact.
“I was in the gravel and when I tried to stand up I saw that the leg was wobbling.”
Rins, who says he can put around 25kg of weight on the leg, is still unsure when he will be fit to make his return to the RCV but said he will raise the issue of injured riders being allowed a private test on a MotoGP bike, to understand their fitness.
“Before coming here, I jumped on my MotoGP bike that I have at home, and still I’m not able to go into the [tucked] position for the straight,” Rins said. “And I have hyper sensitivity on the foot.”
“Next week I have an X-ray, so let’s see if the [bone] consolidation is better. And I would like to jump on the private [road] bike, to see how it feels, how is the riding, because I don’t want to come back and make Moto2 lap times!”
“Can be a good idea,” he said of a allowing injured riders to try a full MotoGP bike in a private test day to determine their fitness to return. “It’s a thing that we never talk about in the Safety Commission, but can be a good idea, yes.”
Rins remains the highest placed Honda rider in the world champion despite slipping to 14th place after missing the four rounds since Mugello.
Johann Zarco will take over Rins’ Honda seat in 2024.
Keyword: Alex Rins gives injury update: “Nerve pain the issue”