Italian Francesco Moser passed the last two nights in the hospital in Trento, Italy, after being hit in the face with a tree branch and suffering a fractured cheekbone. The former cycling great was chopping wood at his farmhouse in Gardolo when a piece rebounded and hit him in the face.
“A mishap and a tremendous amount of pain,” Moser told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I can’t even begin to imagine what would have happened to me if the wood had hit me a few centimetres higher, in the eye.”
He was taken to the hospital where, yesterday, doctors applied a metal plate to his right cheekbone to help the five separate fractures heal.
“I will recover, it will be quick,” said Moser.
Moser, 58, will be able to return to his home today or tomorrow, though he still suffers from pain in his teeth and has difficulty eating.
Before the incident, Moser had just returned from France where he watched his youngest son compete in the junior Paris-Roubaix. Ignazio finished 36th behind winner Jasper Stuyven, 30 years after Moser won his third professional version.
Moser will be forced to skip the presentation of the Giro Trentino, but will be back next month to support Italian cycling.
“I’ll be at the Giro d’Italia.”
This year’s Giro d’Italia finishes in Verona, where Moser claimed his only Grand Tour win in 1984.
He collected numerous wins in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Milano-Sanremo, Paris-Roubaix three times, Giro di Lombardia twice, Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Tours and the 1977 World Championships.