Walkner's future unclear

“At some point, morphine won’t help anymore”

Matthias Walkner's future is unclear.

(Bild: ServusTV / Johannes Jank)

What's next for Matthias Walkner? After his violent crash in California in December and a long period of suffering with pain ("At some point, morphine won't help anymore"), the future of Austria's motorcycle star remains unclear. "Ending my career like that would of course be madness."

On December 5, the Kuchler crashed his KTM into an oncoming slope during training in the USA - with terrible consequences: Open fractures to the tibia, fibula and foot, especially the comminuted fracture to the left ankle was a challenge for the doctors.

Matthias Walkner was seriously injured in a fall.

(Bild: GEPA, zVg)

At the beginning of August, Walkner threw his crutches into the pool, took a few steps and threw his arms up. "It doesn't look like a catwalk yet. A lot of progress has been made in recent weeks and months. Of course, the whole system, this tissue, has to slowly get used to this strain again. But I'm definitely heading in the right direction and I'm on the road to recovery and 80 percent of my everyday life is already without crutches," said Walkner on "Sport und Talk aus dem Hangar-7" on ServusTV.

Back on the bike
Incredible but true: Walkner is already back on the bike. "The work simulation in Tobelbad during the last week of rehab is what I remember most. I had my KTM electric motorcycle with me and then went to the porter and asked him if I could do a work simulation, because that is also the aim of the rehab center," says the 38-year-old. "They then said: 'How now?' Then I said that you have a hectare of woodland behind the house and all the paths are already overgrown and need to be moved a bit. I was then allowed to drive around the rehab center for an hour and a half. The patients really enjoyed it because they got to see something different for once. It also worked relatively well again."

"That was now in a different league"
 Walkner looks back on a long period of suffering. "I always believed that 2016, when I broke my thigh, was the maximum I could take. But that was in a different league now, where I say I'll happily take three broken thighs." He was accompanied by a lot of pain: "All the bones, all the operations and all the plates I have in there, it really hurt a lot. At some point, morphine didn't help any more. I was given 40 milligrams of morphine. Normally, they say 20 milligrams is enough to make sure that an older man is still breathing properly."

However, he is currently doing "extremely well": "I may have had two or three weeks where I had a bit of a hole, but otherwise I've always noticed that there have been improvements every ten days."