ProTeam Arnaud De Lie undergoes successful collarbone surgery

Arnaud De Lie underwent a successful surgery on the left collarbone at the hospital of Herentals, Belgium. The Lotto Dstny rider crashed hard in the opening stage of 4 Jours de Dunkerque on Tuesday and suffered multiple injuries. De Lie will stay one more night in hospital before returning home on Saturday and starting his recovery process. De Lie crashed in the bunch sprint and fractured his left collarbone, a rib and sternum. He also incurred a pneumothorax and lots of abrasions. De Lie spent the first two nights in a French hospital, on Thursday he was transferred to the hospital of Herentals, Belgium where he underwent surgery at the left collarbone on Friday.

Team doctor Ronald Sneijers: “The surgery has been successful but Arnaud will stay one more night in hospital, because of the pneumothorax. Saturday, he will return home and start his recovery. It will take some time before he can get back on the bike, however. Next week, there will be a check-up of the pneumothorax in hospital.”

As the team doctor states, it is still too early to talk about his return to competition. “Arnaud doesn’t have one fracture, but multiple ones”, he explains, “taking everything into account, we expect him to be out of competition for at least six weeks, definitely with the pneumothorax we need to be careful, also the sternum will take time to heal. We monitor his condition carefully and are not taking any risks before his return to racing. The number one priority will be to let the injuries heal, then we will start thinking about the races.