MotoGP: Catastrophe For Toni Elias

Loopy Spanish superstar Toni Elias has broken his femur (thighbone) in practise for the Dutch round of MotoGP at Assen. He fell from his Honda and seemed to be sliding safely along the tarmac when he hit a gravel trap and started tumbling violently.
Early indications suggest that it is a serious break that could take 7 to 11 months to heal, even with the skills of the brilliant but crazy MotoGP surgeon Dr Costa on hand. This means that unless these reports are false, Toni's season on the Gresini Honda is over.
Elias has been on the podium this year, but has suffered from the same inconsistency that has befallen his team-mate Marco Melandri. This year's Honda is a terrible bike, and the Gresini team have had a terrible time trying to make it work on Bridgestone tyres.
The Spaniard won over a lot of fans after his performance at Turkey, where Valentino Rossi claimed the youngster was dangerous, but most observers thought Vale should shut up and watch a video of himself ramming Sete Gibernau a couple of years ago.
There are no easy breaks where the femur is concerned, with even the best case scenario being a layoff of around 8 to 10 weeks. Amazingly, up until medical advances in the 20th century, a broken femur had a high fatality rate, and even though our modern medicine has made it survivable, it is still a nasty bone to break, requiring very long recovery times.
Losing Toni's exciting sideways riding style for the rest of the season is a real blow to MotoGP. Hopefully the young nutter will heal quickly and return to the paddock as soon as possible.