Reveal of bruised lung adds more uncertainty to return of Wout van Aert: “The scan won't take place for a few weeks. Then we know what his real situation is"

Team Visma | Lease a Bike have not had the best few weeks with both Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard crashing hard and set for a lengthy spell on the treatment table.

For van Aert, it was a crash at Dwars Door Vlaanderen that did the damage, ruling him out of the rest of the Spring Classics and casting doubt on his debut participation at the upcoming Giro d'Italia. In conversation with HLN, Team Visma | Lease a Bike sports director, Merijn Zeeman has recently revealed more details have come to light on van Aert's condition, making a return more difficult to judge.

“He also has a bruised lung,” Zeeman explains. “The scan won't take place for a few weeks. Then we know what his real situation is. So in about two weeks we will know more. I don't know exactly what to imagine when dealing with a bruised lung. But it is clear that it hurts.”

Add that to the injuries already known, a broken collarbone, a broken sternum and several ribs broken and things look troublesome for the Belgian superstar.