British cycling great Mark Cavendish is recovering from broken ribs and a collapsed lung after a crash in the Six Days of Ghent track meeting in Belgium.
Cavendish was riding in the madison on Sunday (local time) when he went down in a crash involving Olympic and world champion Lasse Norman Hansen.
"Examinations showed that Mark has suffered two broken ribs on this left side and has a small pneumothorax (collapsed lung), both of which have been treated with medication," Cavendish's road team Deceuninck Quick-Step said in a statement.
"He has been kept in the hospital for observation.
"It is expected that Mark will be discharged either later today or tomorrow morning, and will then undergo a period of recuperation."
Cavendish took to Instagram to reassure his fans he was on the road to recovery.
"Some water on the track, a high speed crash and a few barrel rolls later, I'm being treated for some broken ribs and a pneumothorax," he wrote.
Cavendish, 36, enjoyed a remarkable return to form this year, winning the Tour de France's points classification for the second time in his career.
He claimed four stage wins to equal Belgian great Eddy Merckx's record of 34 victories.
Cavendish, who was born on Isle of Man, has also won the points classification at the Giro d'Italia (2013) and Vuelta a Espana (2010), and chalked up triumphs at the World Road Race Championships (2011), the revered Milan-San Remo (2009).
In track cycling, Cavendish collected silver in the omnium at the 2016 Rio Olympics and has won three world championships in the madison.
Reuters/ABC
