Austin Forkner | Two Months Until Back On The Bike
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During a brief appearance in the announcer’s tower at the 2019 Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Motocross on Tuesday, Austin Forkner stated that he is still two months away from being cleared to ride, and we confirmed the news with him later in the day. The Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki rider has been far from full health since the 2019 Nashville Supercross, when a crash in timed qualifying left him with damage to the ligaments in his knee and forced him to sit out the night’s race, which erased the massive points lead he had built in the 250 East Coast Region championship. Forkner took advantage of the break between the Nashville and East Rutherford rounds and did all of the physical therapy that was possible in an effort to keep him on the bike for the final rounds of the season and a small hope at the championship. A mistake and hard landing in the early laps of the East Rutherford Main Event undid all of the progress that was made through therapy and he pulled off the track in pain, then underwent surgery days later. “I found out that Monday that it was almost as screwed up as you can get it. I wasn’t going to make it worse by riding, I might have fully torn the MCL or torn the meniscus a little more, but it doesn’t matter because they are going to fix it all anyway,” he explained to us in an exclusive interview after the season-ending incident.
Now that the procedure is done and three months of the five-month recovery timeline are complete, Forkner is expected to be back in the saddle of his Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki bike just after the conclusion of the 2019 Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. With Adam Cianciarulo graduating to the 450 class and Martin Davalos pointed out of the 250 class, Forkner will be the top rider of Monster Energy/Pro Circuit/Kawasaki’s four-man squad in 2020 (Forkner and Marchbanks return, Jordon Smith is set to join the team, and the final spot is still undetermined).
