ONE OF the UK's greatest ever motocross racers is facing a terrifying fight to salvage his career after a huge crash at Hawkstone Park at the weekend.
Gordon Crockard, world number three, fell at the first corner at the annual event and was left fighting for his life as other bikes ploughed into his body in the middle of the track.
Crockard lost eight pints of blood, a broken collar bone, several fractured vertebrae, broken ribs and severe bruising to his chest and lungs in the fall.
The 30-year-old also had emergency surgery to remove his spleen.
He was heavily sedated and put on a ventilator in the intensive care unit at Shrewsbury Royal Hospital. He is expected to remain in the hospital’s high dependency unit for the next fortnight.
Crockard’s Saintfield-based manager, Paul Maguire, told the Belfast Telegraph the bike ace was “lucky to be alive.
“He is doing quite well now. He is talking and conscious and breathing on his own so we are all breathing a big sigh of relief. He lost about eight pints of blood from an injury his abdominal area and the surgeon said he doesn’t know how he survived. He is definitely lucky to be alive.
“He was taken down by another rider and then a number of riders hit the left side of his body. It was a fast right-hand bend and he has ridden the course many times before," Maguire said.
