In case you missed it, Kyle Busch will be having surgery in the offseason.
The reigning Sprint Cup Series champion and driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota will have surgery in mid-Dec. to remove the plate and screws out of his left foot. He’ll also have a second separate surgical procedure to remove a rod from his right leg. If the rod isn’t removed and Busch gets caught up in another high-speed wreck, he could have complications if the rod were to break. The plan is to perform both procedures at the same time.
Busch suffered a compound fracture – when the bone breaks the skin and sticks out of the body – in his right leg and broke his left foot on Feb. 21 in the season-opening XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Busch returned after missing 11 races and following his first win of the season at Sonoma Raceway, he went on a tear and drove his way to the championship.
Busch spoke about the surgery and the recovery period during a teleconference Tuesday.
“When I get the foot surgery done, I haven’t heard exactly how long I’m supposed to be off of that, but the doctor made it seem as if once the plates and screws come out, I’ll be able to walk on it right away. It’ll be to rehab to make sure that all the joints that have been immobilized for the last nine months, we get them kind of woken back up in a smooth fashion and break it in, let’s say.”
“I’m going to be down for probably, they said, about four weeks with the leg,” Busch continued. “Just having to re-go through the knee and to cut the knee open again in order to pull the rod out, that’s going to be the most traumatic part — and just having that have to heal and go back together and let the muscle get back together, and of course the tendon as well.”
For those of you who don’t remember the wreck, please see the video below.
As you can see in the video, Busch was bumping Erik Jones through the tri-oval when he got Jones sideways. He was then bumped by Brian Scott, bounced off Kyle Larson, slid down the track and slammed the unprotected inside wall down towards Turn 1.
