Junior world champion Harry Hudson is out of action with a fracture in his spine as a result of a nasty training crash in which he was hit by a motorbike rider.
The 18-year-old Briton, who won the junior road race title at last year's Worlds in Rwanda and now rides for Lidl-Trek's development team, was training in Girona last week when the incident occurred.
"I was hit on a decent [sic] by a motorbike and had a pretty scary crash," he wrote in a social media update.
Hudson did not expand on the collision but his brother, Finley, commented that the "motorbike was on the wrong side" of the road and hit him head-on.
"After 24hrs in hospital I was released, unfortunately I have suffered a compression fractured in my T8 vertebra. I’m now at home recovering," Harry Hudson added.
The T8 vetebra is located in the middle of the back, beneath the shoulder blades, towards the lower end of the thoracic section of the spine that sits between the cervical section (neck) and the lumbar section (lower back).
Compression fractures, according to the NHS, are "small breaks or cracks in the vertebrae that are caused by trauma or develop over time as a result of osteoporosis."
Surgical intervention is only usually required for more serious fractures, especially those that are unstable and risk complicating the alignment of the spinal column.
It is unclear at this point how long Hudson will be away from racing for.
"This weeks been pretty rough but the support and help I’ve received from Lidl-Trek and Trinity Sports Management as well as other cyclists on the road immediately after the crash has been incredible," he said.
