Alessandro Ballan underwent an emergency surgery
Alessandro Ballan had a terrible accident at descend of Coll de Rates earlier which left him with a broken leg, rib and an injured spleen.
The cyclist was immediately transported to hospital by Team Doctor, Dario Spinelli who examined the Italian and disclosed that he suffered from a displace fracture of his left femur, a fractured ninth rib, abdominal trauma and suffered from mid-shaft.
Team BMC Medical Officer Dr. Max Testa stated that the cyclist will now need at least two surgeries to remove his spleen as soon as possible.
"The broken rib actually made a small puncture in his lung. The first priority is the spleen injury - that is considered a medical emergency," Dr. Testa said. "
The treatment was started on Thursday with a successful completion of the first surgery while the treatment on his leg is expected to start shortly.
The 33-year-old started his professional crusade with Team Lampre in 2004 and spent a period of six years with the team before joining the Belgian side, Team BMC in 2010.
He has proved to be a real gem and helped his side with several top performances in the past few seasons however, his best performance out of the three seasons with Team BMC is during 2012.
Ballan finished first at the Giro di Toscana, and also bagged stages at the Eneco Tour and the Giro del Trentino 2012.
He finished third at the Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, fourth at the Strade Bianche, eighth at the Milan-San Remo and occupied the ninth overall spot at the E3 Harelbeke 2012.
He is scheduled to start the 2013 season at the UCI Inaugural event, Santos Tour Down Under 2013 but the injury has slightly changed the equation.
"Of course his loss means a lot since Alessandro is one of our key riders for the classics," said BMC Directeur Sportif John Lelangue.
"But most important right now is that he can recover and just get back to his normal process. We'll wait for all the medical information before even beginning to think about what could be his plan for coming back," he concluded.
Only time will tell, if Ballan recovers in time to continue his schedule for the new season as Team BMC is definitely in need of the services of its main lead out man.
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