John McGuinness suffers multiple broken bones in North West 200 crash

Published May. 12, 2017 12:28 p.m. ET

Samuel Reiman

John McGuinness, a 23-time winner at the Isle of Man TT, has been diagnosed with a compound fracture to his right lower leg, four broken vertebrae and three broken back ribs following a crash during practice at the North West 200 on Thursday.

McGuinness, 45, was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast after he crashed at the Primrose Hill section of the course. McGuinness went into surgery on Thursday but, due to the extent of his injuries, it was not possible to plate his leg as initially thought, reports McGuinness' Honda Racing team.

McGuinness will be in a cast for up to six weeks in treatment for the vertebrae and thus will not be able to compete in this year's Isle of Man TT.

Honda Racing has withdrawn from the Superstock and Superbike races at this weekend's North West 200 and will perform a detailed analysis to work out what happened.

“Unfortunately John’s incident at Primrose Hill during qualifying has resulted in quite a substantial injury to his right Tibia and Fibula," stated team manager Jonny Twelvetrees. "It is a real blow to John and the team, but he’s got an incredible amount of spirit and is in very good hands with the medical staff at the Royal Victoria Hospital. We now need to determine what happened and will sit out the Superstock and Superbike races, get back to Louth to analyze John’s bike and re-group ahead of our next test at Castle Combe in a couple of weeks before we head to the Isle of Man.”

The North West 200 is a motorcycle road race ran on public roads in Northern Ireland. Many of the riders at the North West 200 will also compete at the Isle of Man TT.