Dakar favourite shatters ankle in horror crash: 'Thought about euthanasia'

Matthias Walkner was high on the favorites list for the DakarRally. In 2018 he won the rally in the motorcycle category, thenfollowed up in 2019 by finishing second and in 2022 he grabbed P3.In 2024, however, he will not participate in the famous rally aftera freak accident in the latest test. During a reconnaissance lap ofthe terrain in early December, he overlooked a five-meter-deepabyss due to flying dust. He landed horribly and sustained multipleopen fractures to his tibia, fibula and foot. His ankle was alsobroken into 31 pieces. And so, logically, a line went through theDakar Rally. A long period of rehabilitation arrived. After initialoperations in California, Walkner was transported to his homecountry of Austria. In Graz, he underwent another 15-hour surgeryshortly before Christmas, during which his left ankle was taken inhand. There was "not much left of it," according to the Austrian,and after a 15-hour reconstruction, bone was taken away from hispelvis to be used for his ankle. The article continues below theimages of Walkner after his crash C0jG5gwt4YY View this post onInstagram A post shared by Matthias Walkner (@matthias_walkner)Doesn't go in the cold Walkner does not need to be on the operatingtable for the time being, something he did for a total of 31 hoursin December. He is currently still in the hospital and will soonbegin his long rehabilitation. "My ankle looked like I had steppedon a landmine," Walkner reveals to SpeedWeek . "If this hadhappened in Africa, my foot would not have been salvageable."That's not to say that amputation in California hadn't beenconsidered. Walkner was struggling mentally. "I even thought abouteuthanasia," he admits. "I thought about people who are no longercapable of anything because of the pain. On a scale of one to 10, Iwas easily at an eight to nine in terms of pain." Amputation wasultimately out of the question, something Walkner was thankful forto his medical team in Austria. "After the 15-hour surgery, mydoctor came in and said, 'Matthias, I promised we wouldn't stopuntil we were completely satisfied.' I am very proud of how theoperation went.'" "I am extremely grateful and happy to have thebest possible medical team around me. They have a lot of expertiseand they are also very warm people. I am brimming with positiveenergy because of them. In my phone they are all stored with theword 'angel' added in the name." Dakar 2025, then? "I got off to agood start. I can finally ride my bike again. With luck, I will bepain-free at the start of the next Dakar Rally. Step by step wewill see. I can't wait until I can shower independently again andput weight back on my left foot." In the video below you can seesome footage from shortly after the crash. Please note, the footageis not for the sensitive viewer. C1ET4LNNiOD View this post onInstagram A post shared by Matthias Walkner (@matthias_walkner)