MICK DOOHAN
Mangled a leg in 1992. Went on to win five consecutive 500-cc world titles
mick Doohan very nearly became a one-legged former motorcycle racer in July 1992. six years later, he had won five 500cc world titles. there is little doubt that his is the greatest comeback in motorcycle racing history.
the teak-tough aussie was leading the 1992 title chase by a mile when he slid off his honda nsr500 during practice at assen. the crash was not big but it had huge consequences. a local surgeon botched the operation to fix his broken right tibia and fibula, so that within days the leg was dying.
‘it was starting to smell like bad meat,’ he recalls.
the surgeon’s solution? amputation below the knee. the operation would have gone ahead if motoGp medic, Dr claudio costa, had not intervened. he kidnapped Doohan and flew him to his italian clinic in an air ambulance.
Doohan’s only thoughts were about returning to racing to protect his points lead. costa’s only thoughts were about saving the leg. numerous treatments did not work, so he sewed the dying leg to the good leg, using that leg’s blood supply to keep the injured leg alive.
‘there were numerous operations — i lost count of how many — and they were long ops,’ he adds. ‘this one was a success but it wasn’t pretty, they never were.’
after 14 days, the legs were separated. Doohan could hardly walk, yet his target was to race at the penultimate Gp in Brazil, just five weeks later.
‘Brazil was a pretty rough weekend. it was extremely tricky because i didn’t have any feeling from the knee down, so my foot would come off the ’peg and i wouldn’t know until it was floating in the breeze.
‘the night before the race, i woke up and the leg had basically exploded with all the infection. all this pus oozed out over the bed, so costa came in to flush it out with saline solution. he’d pour a litre through this hole, like a big boiltype thing, then flush it back out to get rid of all the crap.’
Doohan missed the title by four points and began preparing for 1993.
‘the problem was that the leg was infected, so the bone was pretty soft. i pushed it too hard in training and the bone started to collapse. also, i still had no feeling in the leg, so i ground half of my little toe away during testing. there were times when i thought what the hell am i doing? But i wanted to ride and i knew if i could get strong again, i should be able to win.’
Doohan struggled through 1993 with the wonky leg, which had no movement at the ankle, so hrc made him a thumb-operated rear brake. During the off-season, surgeons attached an external fixator to the leg, a rarely used technology at the time. each day he tightened the fixator screws to bend the bones straight, millimetre by millimetre. During this phase of treatment, patients take morphine tablets. Doohan used aspirin.
‘mick took so little pain medication, it was almost superhuman,’ said his surgeon, kevin louie. ‘it’s like he reset his pain thermostat.’
still limping, Doohan came out all guns blazing in 1994. he won that year’s title and the next four. only another huge accident in 1998 stopped him winning more.