Successful surgery for Valverde
02 July 2017

Tour de France

Three-hour operation on kneecap fracture and tibia, gluteus wounds last night; Spaniard expected to return home next week

Alejandro Valverde successfully underwent surgery last night at Düsseldorf's University Hospital to fix some of the injuries sustained at his race-ending crash, Saturday, on the opening TT of the 2017 Tour de France. The operation not only consisted on healing his most serious fracture -the kneecap of his left leg-, but also took care of and closed two important wounds at Alejandro's tibia and gluteus. The talus fracture in his left ankle did not require any intervention.

Surgery started just before midnight and lasted three hours, after which the Spanish rider was taken back to his room at around 5am on Sunday. Valverde will stay in Germany for at least two more days before returning to Spain to start his recovery, which is expected to take a few months.