The serious injury suffered by Rubén Plaza ten days ago in the Queen stage of the Vuelta a Murcia underwent surgery for more than five hours in Barcelona's Clínica Dexeus yesterday. The tibia and fibula fracture in his right leg, confirmed in the early checks, went worse than expected as damage in the ligaments of his ankle were confirmed, as well as an inflammation in the foot that forced the operation to get delayed by a week.

“The doctors told me it was a very laborious operation,” explains Plaza from the medical center. “Apart from fixing the fracture well, it was a very complex surgery because the ligaments were also damaged. Fortunately, it all seems to have gone well and now, after ten or fiteen days of complete immobilization, we’ll be able to move the injured zone gradually.“

Despite the complications to set a recovery time in this kind of injury, the Movistar Team rider will be approximately eight weeks without being able to lean his foot on the floor, and after that, he’ll be starting rehab sessions that will last for several months, ruling him out of his main objective of the season, the Tour de France. “It’s obvious that these crashes never come in a good moment, but in my case the worst thing is not to stop, but the physical consequences of this, because it’s quite a complicated fracture, not like a collarbone or scaphoid,” Plaza reflects. “Reaching the Tour on form is impossible and, in the best case scenario, I could make it to the Vuelta a España. It may be a good aim to work for, but I don’t want to get obsessed, and the really important thing is that the recovery goes steadily and that the foot recovers well.”

The allrounder from Movistar Team remembers with good detail how his accident in the Collado Bermejo’s descent happened: “The downhill was dangerous, and in a turn left I was touched a bit on the real wheel, I took a small bump and came thrown out to a bank. Because we didn’t have earpieces, I couldn’t put people into alert I was there. I saw the race passing by and I was screaming, but no one could hear me. I went crwaling into the ditch until they could see me. Those were bad moments, because I saw soon it was something remarkable.”

Plaza wants to thank for all the numerous signs of interest towards his physical status after this nasty accident: “It’s been so many people that have supported me, as well in person as through social networks, where they keep on doing it. Thanks very much to all of them, because their support gives me big moral in these moments.”