- Four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome suffered a serious heart injury, a pericardial rupture, in a recent training crash on the Cote d’Azur, it has been revealed.
- The injury, a rare complication of blunt force trauma, has a mortality rate of between 20 and 60 per cent.
- Froome underwent successful surgery last week for the pericardial rupture, a collapsed lung, five broken ribs, and a fractured spine.
- His wife, Michelle, confirmed the severity of his condition to The Times, saying: “It was obviously a lot more serious than some broken bones.”
- She added that it was going to be “a long recovery process” for her husband, and “people need to understand what is going on”.
IN FULL
Chris Froome suffered life-threatening heart injury in recent crash