Crutchlow: Cutting Parmesan is a dangerous thing!

Cal Crutchlow says the knife injury he suffered in his kitchen has given him even more of a reason to leave the cooking to his wife Lucy from now on.

The British rider suffered a severed tendon to the index finger on his left hand as he helped to prepare a meal on Sunday. Crutchlow underwent a procedure and intends to compete this weekend at Misano, although he joked that his days in the kitchen are over.

“Cutting Parmesan is a dangerous thing. I wish I could give you a story, like I was fighting a bear or something good, but honestly I don’t cook – Lucy does the cooking because I’m a terrible cook, so I don’t bother,” he said.

“But I was cutting the cheese to go with my dinner that Lucy prepared and the knife came out of the cheese and went straight in my finger. I didn’t think anything too much of it: there was some blood and I felt a bit light-headed at first. I went to bed no problem and the next day I got up and there was still quite a lot of blood coming out.

“I got my bicycle ready to go out and I thought I best go to the doctor, and he said I needed to go to the hospital. The Italian doctors are savage – I had no painkillers or anything and they just started to pull at the finger, which I didn’t like,” added the LCR Honda rider.

“Then they noticed that the tendon was severed and in two, so they then made an operation immediately to re-attach the tendon back together. It was a bad day on Monday but I managed to ride the bike on Tuesday in Barcelona. It’s difficult, sure, but I think it’s possible – we’ll see tomorrow and on the race day.”

Crutchlow has been left disappointed by the setback and after a strong performance in his home race at Silverstone, he was optimistic of another solid race in Italy.

“Obviously it is disappointing after a good weekend in Silverstone by the LCR team and Honda. I felt good and I was hoping to come here after a good test and be strong; maybe it will cause me no problems, maybe I won’t be able to feel good, but we’ll see how we get on.

“It’s an even better excuse not to do any of the cooking again! No, I’m a terrible cook but I’m good at may other things – I do the hoovering. A lot of the other riders here have assistants to do this for them, but I like to be a bit more hands-on!”

During the pre-race press conference on Thursday, Crutchlow was asked for his opinion on MotoGP riders training in between race on motocross and enduro machines, in light of the injury suffered by Valentino Rossi, who misses his home race after breaking his leg.

Crutchlow does not ride other motorcycles other than his MotoGP bike throughout the season, but he said he ‘completely understood’ why his counterparts trained in this way.

“I don’t ride the bike outside of the race weekend but it’s my choice. I think for a lot of riders it helps them go faster but for me, I don’t think it helps me go faster. This is completely my choice and I completely understand why they rider.

“Soccer players play soccer for training, or tennis players play tennis. I think it’s good that motorcycle riders ride a motorcycle but for me it doesn’t work and I don’t want to ride, but not for the risk reason. As Marc [Marquez] said, if I didn’t want I risk I wouldn’t even go in the kitchen!”