Successful surgery for Sébastien
By TMX Archives on 3rd Jun 09
Sbastien Pourcel underwent successful surgery Thursday afternoon 28th of May in Aix en Provence, but Sbastien will be replaced for the coming 2 GP's by fellow countryman Florent Richier.
Professor Vedel – who already operated himafter his accident in December – repaired the damaged shoulders of thefactory Kawasaki rider. Seb entered the operating theatre at fouro'clock, where he stayed for four hours under general anesthesia; hehad to stay in the clinic until Monday, but he will attend the FrenchGrand Prix in Ernée next week.
During the operation ProfessorVedel treated his left shoulder injured in Valkenswaard; the damagedligaments and the tendon were repaired by arthroscopy, and Sébastienleft the room with the relevant support around his shoulder to avoidfurther complication. The doctors also made a minor correction to hisright shoulder. He will be out of action for eight to ten weeks,missing most of the remaining World Championship rounds.
Forthe next events, KRT team will lineup Frenchman Florent Richier for theGP's in France and Germany. Multiple German Motocross Champion andwinner of many Supercross events in Germany, the former rival ofSébastien in the "Minivert Cadet Championship" will do his firstappearance in Ernée on the factory Kawasaki KX450F-SR. Florent who willturn twentyfive next Sunday never got the chance to race a GP.Currently racing in Germany for Team Pfeil Kawasaki, he got thepermission from his team to reach his dream during two events and afterthat he will continue racing for Team Pfeil Kawasaki.
"We havethe bikes, the parts and the mechanics for 2 MX1 riders. The past weekshave been tough for everybody since we only had one representative.We're happy to give a chance to Florent and there will be no pressureon Florent for these GP's,” said team owner Roger Pourcel.
Martinvan Genderen said: "From KRT point of view we are very happy that wecould find a replacement for Sebastien. Of course we feel sorry thatthe injure of Sebastien is taking a long time and that he can't ridefor us like we planned. However everybody know that this year is a yearwith many injuries. With Florent we are fully operational again and weare looking forward for the race this weekend. A French rider in aFrench GP will give us the extra what we missed for a few weeks. Tworiders on the track for KRT."
Steve Guttridge said: "At Kawasakiwe like to work as one big team, Team Green, Florant has given us a lotof success over the past four years, both in German Championship, asGerman Champion for team Pfeil Kawasaki and also in the super cross.Florent now has the fantastic opportunity to show his talent on the MXGrand Prix stage for our official factory team. This is thanks to thegood coordination of his team manager Harold Pfeil. Of course Florantwill return to fulfill his duties for team Pfeill in the German Mastersand DM open Championships as a priority."