Aleix: Pol 'very lucky', spinal cord inflamed

Aleix Espargaro visited his injured younger brother Pol in hospital during the brief break between the Czech and Austrian MotoGPs.

Pol had missed the Brno race after a nasty warm-up accident left the Spaniard with a fracture to his collarbone, which the KTM team subsequently announced would not require surgery.

But Aleix revealed that the bigger concern was swelling to his spinal cord, which initially meant Pol could not feel his arms and legs. The 27-year-old's condition is improving, but he currently remains in hospital in Barcelona.

"Pol said he changed a little bit the engine brake control, to try to stop the bike better and he locked the rear quite aggressively," Aleix said, when asked what Pol had told him about the accident. 

"Then after the second movement he saw that the wall was very close so he decided to brake more and then he hit the ground very, very hard. When I was in hospital I saw the helmet and I've never seen a helmet like it in my life. It was completely destroyed.

"Pol said he was very worried because before he arrived in the hospital, he couldn't feel the arms and the legs. Nothing. Then when he arrived in hospital and Dr Charte saw him, they started to touch him and he started to feel pain in his arms. When he felt the pain in his arms he relaxed a lot."

Turning to his brother's injuries, Aleix said: "Actually he is worse than it looked, because he has a spinal cord that is very inflamed. I was there Tuesday and Wednesday and Tuesday afternoon he couldn't touch anything with his hands; he had a lot of cramps in his arms and hands. 

"Every time they put the medicine in the vein he cried out a lot, so they had to move it to the arm and not touch him. It was quite scary. Yesterday we talked to a neurosurgeon and they told us he was very, very, very lucky.

"Yesterday night was the first time that he could start to touch things with his fingers. The first thing he touched was Max [Aleix's son] and he was just asking to see Max so I went with him there.

"But he will still be in hospital next week I would say, and maybe when he goes home he will have to stay one more week in bed. We will see. 

"The Doctors say they don't really have a lot of information about how the spinal cord will improve. They say in two-three days there could be no inflammation and it's perfect, or it can be very long. 

"So we have to wait because it's very dangerous if he moves, if he races or whatever before the inflammation is gone."

Aleix was himself hospitalised just before the summer break after a heavy accident in Germany. 

While it is hard to see his brother in such a condition, the Aprilia rider accepts danger is part of the job - but added that he and Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta have already been speaking about how to improve things like neck safety.

"I had a big crash ten days before, we've lost friends in this paddock which is worse [sighs]. It changes your perspective, but I was talking Tuesday and Wednesday, half-an-hour every day by telephone with Carmelo. 

"We were just putting things on the table, trying to see what more we can improve. We are trying to improve a lot the run-off area of the circuits, the helmets have improved a lot. 

"But why cannot we improve more the helmets, why cannot we develop more air bags, why do we still have the neck unprotected? Carmelo told he - and it was clever thing - he checked a picture when he was racing in the '70s. Everything has completely changed a lot now, but the neck is exactly the same. 

"So we still have to try improve things, but we know that our sport is [dangerous] like this. Our job is like this."