Thomas Covington & Darian Sanayei

American riders Thomas Covington and Darian Sanayei must have walked under a ladder together. The two young MX2 riders are good friends, and both are suffering at the moment with ACL injuries.

We all know motocross riders are tough, and these two plan on trying to race as soon as possible. In fact, Covington will try and line up at the Grand Prix of Russia and Darian Sanayei in Latvia for the following GP. Slowing coming into their own, both Americans still feels that a GP victory is around the corner.

“Yes, that is the goal (to race in Russia). I am trying to do that, and it doesn’t feel too bad. There is some swelling, so we will try and deal with that and just tape it up. It should be okay to finish off the season. I was going into a turn; a long sweeper, I came in pretty fast, hit a soft spot and had to stick my leg out and twisted it to the outside and it ended up against my butt. I didn’t even crash, but straight away I felt a lot of pain and I knew my ACL was gone.”

As for Sanayei, he won’t make Russia, but his goal is to race the rest of the season and be back for the Grand Prix, set for Latvia in the middle of May.

“It is no secret now, but I hurt my ACL, tore it. So, at the moment I am just going to let the swelling go down and see if it is stable enough to ride some GPs and continue the season. Obviously if it’s good, I will be still going for wins. I don’t want to be done for the season, I want to try it. I will do everything I can, and I am pretty sure, once the swelling goes down and I get some physio on it, I will get it sorted.”

Covington can laugh about the injuries, but he knows that the two friends need to get their injuries fixed, so they can continue what has been impressive starts to 2018.

 “It is so weird, both out with knee injuries. Hopefully we both come back okay. I know Darian is now in the states and he will try and come back for Latvia. It is kind of weird. I tried to help him as much as I could with doctors and stuff, just getting him in. Unfortunately, I have had a lot of trouble with knee injuries. We are always trying to help each other out, whatever way we can.”

With a lot of interest from the American motocross public, you can be sure that both young riders will want to get back on track and put in some solid performances. Russia and Latvia are the starting points.