Heavy crash in practice results in dislocated shoulder and ligament damage for Cardus

Ricky Cardús suffered a crash during the third free practice of the Czech Grand Prix and hit the ground hard, dislocating his shoulder. In the Clinica Mobile it was put back in, but popped out again, a sign that the ligaments were damaged. The extend of the injury of the Argiñano Racing Team rider won’t be known completely until he will visit the hospital in Barcelona on Tuesday to undergo an MRI and clarify the situation.

The Catalan scored points in the last three races and despite things not starting too well at Brno on Friday, on Saturday morning he began posting very competitive laptimes which indicated a possible good qualifying session.

Cardús started FP3 with a used rear tyre which had 20 laps on it and with that he posted a laptime 0.9 seconds behind the fastest. Upon returning to the box he indicated to his chief mechanic that he’s been getting the necessary confidence again from his Moto2 bike. On this AJR the rear shock was adjusted to gain more traction and also the geometry was changed to allow better cornering. He went back out with new tyres and in turn 12, when he opened the throttle in the first lap of a new run, he crashed. It’s been a real shame, because the marriage Cardús-AJR was working. The team now waits for the examination results to know if it’ll be necessary to find a replacement for the next race in Misano.

Ricky Cardús: “A very difficult day, I made a silly mistake opening the gas and everything is ruined. It looked very positive, the bike went well, I had confidence and started to get the pace. At the track they told me I have a damaged clavicular ligament. I go home on Monday and on Tuesday I’ll visit the doctor to have more tests.”

Source: Arginano Racing Press Release