Belgian doctor confirms that Wout Van Aert is on his way to recovery: "The operation went according to plan"

Wout Van Aert was on the operating table of doctor Tom Claes in Herentals, day after his terrible Dwars door Vlaanderen crash. His brother and fellow doctor Steven Claes was a guest in De Afspraak later that day, where he confirmed that the spring is over for Van Aert and start at Giro d'Italia doesn't seem like a sound option either.

"Considering the circumstances, it was quite good. The operation went according to plan, but there are of course injuries that cannot be remedied with surgery alone," says Claes.

"With complex combinations of injuries, it is important that we fine-tune them one by one. In the case of Wout van Aert, unfortunately there were a lot of them. And especially for athletes, every small secondary diagnosis determines the speed of recovery."

"The special thing about such athletes is that they can turn a kind of switch very quickly. I already felt that with him yesterday. It is amazing how emotionally resilient and resilient most of those athletes are. The spring has clearly ended and then there is no way back either."