Last week we reported that Vincent Luis had withdrawn from WTCS Yokohama due to a hip niggle.
Today, however, Luis revealed that after an MRI scan he has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his hip area at the top of his femur. As such the injury is worse than originally anticipated. Whereas Luis had hoped to race at WTCS Cagliari in two weeks, he will now be facing a delayed return to the season.
Most significantly, he will miss his opportunity of achieving a top-5 finish in Yokohama and/or Cagliari. The French federation had mandated that it would take a top-5 at either event to earn a slot at the Paris Olympic Test Event this year.
Due to his injury, Luis will now miss those events and will instead rely upon a discretion selection for the Test Event. As a former world champion, such a selection should be forthcoming. Moreover Luis already finished 4th at WTCS Abu Dhabi so his form was looking good early in the season.
At the same time there will be no guarantees as the form of others and his own recovery may affect his chances.
Femoral stress reactions can often taken 6 to 8 weeks to fully heal. In some instances they can take up to 14 weeks to fully resolve themselves.
He will be able to take some solace, though, in that the injury has been caught, and caught fairly early in the season. As a result Luis has time to fully rehabilitate his hip in the run up to the summer and then the WTCS Final in Pontevedra.
At WTCS Bermuda last November, he reminded the field of his capabilities as he stormed to victory in a vintage performance. Fans will no doubt be hoping he can move past this setback to reattain such highs later in the year.
