Aegerter Makes WorldSBK Return, But Surgery Looming for Gardner

After missing the last three rounds due to injury, GRT Yamaha rider Dominique Aegerter will make his WorldSBK return in Estoril.

Aegerter’s second season in the championship has been a struggle, as the two-time World Supersport champion has consistently been out-paced by team-mate Remy Gardner.

But after making his recovery from a nasty motocross accident, the Swiss rider has finally been cleared to return after Alessandro Delbianco and Marvin Fritz replaced him in the previous two rounds.

“Finally, I can ride again and see all the guys again,” Aegerter said. “I couldn’t wait to be back in action and every day I worked very hard on my recovery.

“It won’t be an easy weekend, not going to lie, as I’ll be back after a long time and still have some pain in my ribs and shoulder.

“Although I already know the track, I’ve never ridden there with a Superbike, so it’ll be quite challenging, but the most important thing is that I can try to race again and I’m impatient to see everyone.”

For team-mate Gardner, the last two rounds will be followed by a postseason back surgery. The Australian, who made his third MotoGP appearance of 2024 at Motegi, is in need of surgery due to a non-motorcycle accident.

Gardner first suffered his back injury during a collision with Aegerter and Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci in 2023, however, it was a wakeboard fall that did most of the damage more recently.

Gardner said: “I think the factory [SBK] boys are doing a test in November. I'm not doing it because I'm having surgery on my back, so I'll be off the bike until next year after Jerez.

“The crash last year from Misano where Petrucci took out Domi and then Domi took me out on the first lap kind of set it off. I had a bit of pain. I was like, 'I'll get over it after a few days like I usually do'. And it was like 2 months!

“I got over it and then I had a wakeboard crash, doing a backflip! So I hurt it again and it didn't get better after that. I went to get it checked at the end of last year, and the doctor said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got the back of a 45-year-old’. 

“So I've been basically putting it [surgery] off this year, just with a few injections in the back to help it. I was close to doing the surgery in that big break we had between Assen and Misano.

"But I didn't want to risk it in the middle of the season. We were quite OK at that point in the season. I thought let's focus on riding and that's it.

“It's not a massive operation. They're just going to basically clean up a bit of the scar tissue. It's like calcified muscle around those two vertebrae. It's unstable and the disks are suffering for that.

"But [afterwards] I’ve got to be a month at home basically with my feet up, which I'm not going to take very lightly. So let’s see if I behave myself!”

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