Injury update: Adam Cianciarulo sits out remainder of AMA Supercross season
By Team TMX on 27th Jan 22
AMA Supercross Adam Cianciarulo Anaheim San Diego
Monster Energy Kawasaki has confirmed that a knee injury sustained in San Diego has put Adam Cianciarulo out of the remaining 14 rounds of the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship.
Sustained at round three in San Diego, Cianciarulo's right-knee injury came after a mistake through the whoop section in qualifying. AC didn't crash, but an awkward dab when he got out of shape in the whoops must have done more damage than first thought. After consultation with medical professionals, it was determined that the injury would force an early conclusion to Cianciarulo's Supercross efforts.
Cianciarulo had an impressive start to the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship with courageous performances that had him leading laps in back-to-back 450SX Main Events. Despite competing with the adverse effects of a pre-season shoulder injury (grade three separation), Cianciarulo persevered to score valuable points at the first two rounds and kept his sights set on the long-term goal of championship contention.
Cianciarulo was left in 15th place in the points chase after not scoring at San Diego. That put him 36 points adrift from the summit occupied by Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha's Eli Tomac. So with the championship now gone, it made sense for the highly-popular rider to step away and let his body heal up.
"The start of this year has been challenging for me mentally and physically as I've done my best to overcome a slowly recovering shoulder injury," said Cianciarulo.
"I'm proud of what I've been able to achieve given the situation but, I'm obviously now faced with a big setback. I'm looking at this as an opportunity to fully rehab my body, so I'm focused on maximising every day of recovery to get back to doing what I love at my best."
Kawasaki Racing Senior Manager, Dan Fahie, commented: "As we've seen from Adam through previous years, he displayed exceptional promise and heart in his riding this season.
"His performances at the first couple of races were right on track with our hopes for him, and he was progressing nicely into the swing of things. This injury will, unfortunately, stall that progress until Adam is healed up and ready to return to racing but, we will continue to fully support him through that time and look forward to his return."
Further updates on Cianciarulo's expected return to racing will be announced in the near future.
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