Image: Foremost Media.

A broken collarbone among other injuries has been uncovered by current Mi-Bike Australian Superbike Championship (ASBK) leader Troy Herfoss, the Penrite Honda Racing sustaining the damage while training on motocross shortly after Morgan Park.

Herfoss crashed Queensland Moto Park (QMP) on the Wednesday following round five of the 2023 ASBK season while preparing for a one-off Penrite ProMX Championship appearance at the venue.

The number 17 had his collarbone operated on that same day by renowned Brisbane-based surgeon Dr Steve Andrews, streamlining the recovery process for that particular area in the best possible way.

“I had a training crash on the motocross bike out at Queensland Moto Park doing some preparation for what was going to be a wildcard out at the QMP national this week,” the 36-year-old Herfoss told CycleOnline.

“It was only Wednesday after Morgan Park, just a routine crash, to be honest. You fall over a fair bit on the motocross bikes and it wasn’t a bad crash, I sort of just came into a bit of a bermy area, a bit of soft dirt and just tucked the front and went over the bars a little bit awkwardly.

“I didn’t feel that bad, obviously it hurt and we sort of established pretty quick that I broke my collarbone. I was with a really good group of guys and straight away they sort of just helped me off the track. I had some good people there and they knew of a surgeon, Dr Steve Andrews, who is a really well-renowned surgeon in Australian motocross and road racing.

“Because I got onto him really quickly and went straight to the hospital and got my collarbone fixed, I probably didn’t check out my body as you would as if I had just gone straight to emergency. Got the collarbone fixed up that day and, honestly, he did such an amazing job. I woke up the next morning and, if I didn’t have a scar there, I wouldn’t know that I had a broken collarbone.”

While the collarbone surgery was timely and successful, Herfoss soon found his injuries weren’t limited to that area as he had also suffered a collapsed lung and multiple broken ribs from the incident.

“Unfortunately, as I was going to leave the hospital, I got really short on breath and yeah we sort of realised my lung collapsed and for a couple of days there, I was in the hospital getting some checks on my heart and stuff,” he added.

“I basically took a big hit and, long story short, we established I had some bruising on my heart and the lung collapsed, so I headed home after a few days, and have just been in a lot of pain the last two weeks.

“I went back for the check on my collarbone and I was sort of explaining the pain I had in my chest, and they sent me in for some X-rays and it turns out there was up to eight broken ribs there, which we realised three of them were from a crash I had just before Darwin, which were recovered.

“I had five broken ribs from the crash two weeks ago after Morgan Park, so that sort of made sense as to why I slept in a chair for two weeks [laughs].

“Here we are, I think it will be three weeks on Wednesday and I’m feeling pretty good. The last two days I’ve gone for a few walks and jogs and I can sort of get the heart rate up a bit easier. It’s just a bit uncomfortable with the ribs, but as people know in this sport, ribs are a bit of a nothing injury really, you’ve just got to get on with it.”

In terms of the timing of the incident and its impact on Herfoss’ ASBK campaign, there are still over two and a half months before the series resumes at Phillip Island between 27-29 October. It does rule him out of a cameo in ProMX, however, he remains certain that training on motocross has been beneficial for his career at this point.

“I’m just thankful that I have got a lot of time until the next Superbike race to recover,” he continued. “It’s one of those injuries that you probably won’t even know I’ve had an injury by the time we get back on the Superbike. Unfortunately, the dream of doing the motocross round has been put on the back-burner.”