The Emergency Department - An in-depth look at who is injured in AMA SX

Author: David Hogan

Despite smashing a few teeth Chase Sexton should be in action at Arlington.

For those who haven't followed “The Emergency Department” from its origins elsewhere (Thanks for the run guys) to Fullnoise.com.au. This is your round by round Injury update from the AMA Supercross and Motocross.

This list was compiled by David Hogan. (@always.moto on instagram)

As a Aussie physiotherapist and Moto racer/rider/lover I try to fill in the blanks on those rider updates that give you nothing to help you understand the extent of their injury. I also just BS a bit about how good or bad the race was because who doesn't love to BS whilst bench racing if you have a platform to do it on. On to the injury updates.

Daytona never disappoints in my eyes. As a fan of AMA Supercross. This once a year Daytona event creates a buzz, that causes the hive to go nuts. The teams and riders have so much activity in the week leading up to the event. From special test track extensions, different bike settings, special one off riding gear sets, and wall jumps. Something about Daytona and Wall jumps. I mean just ask JS7 and now his protege Chase Sexton. The event just brings another level of effort that as a fan I love. It also, as now a budding media guy. It also gives spark to new content and in my niche. There were definitely more injuries than I want to report on for one event. But content is content I guess. But guys really pushed the send button at Daytona this year.

The injury list just grows and grows. We do have some riders returning to action this week that will hopefully boost the ranks again but it has been one hard season for rider injuries to date.

Daytona saw some different injury types added to the list for the year so far. Grant Harlan had a brain bleed. Not to be confused with a concussion. Although an injury to the brain also. This is more like a bruise where blood is released from a vessel into a space it should not be. The concussion is more like a computer that has frozen and once turned off and on is good to go. This injury will be closely monitored and may delay his return.

A Broken Sternum was also added and is another difficult injury to recover from. Most fractures get put in a cast and are immobilised whilst they heal. But you can't (despite what you see in the movies) cast a chest and immobilise it. The lungs will always expand the chest and move the fractured sternum enough to affect the healing time and potentially the smoothness of the fracture’s realignment.

Top of the new list is Chase Sexton’s two broken teeth from impacting his handlebars with his face whilst attempting to double off the aforementioned wall jump. When you hit send it usually only goes one of two ways. Perfect, or into “The Emergency Department”.

So what’s next? We have another Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday stay, this time in Arlington Texas. This will be another difficult run of events that may cause issues for riders. We are now deep into the season. At this later point in the season many riders are dealing with niggling injuries that may not have been reported, and may not be that big of an issue previously. But with more races completed. More races in a short space of time. Does the reduced recovery time between events affect the ability of any riders to line up at all three races?

Another factor may be fatigue. We may have a few more fatigued riders coming off the Daytona event. This event which is usually more physically taxing than other Supercrosses may start to have an accumulating effect on riders' recovery ability. Will this cause another busy night of injuries? Or busy nights of injuries? Time will tell. All I know is we have 3 supercross in 7days to look forward to and as a fan there should be nothing better than that.

Until next week moto fans!