Image: MXN.

SD3 Husqvarna’s Luke Arbon was a notable absentee at the weekend’s Murray Bridge round of the Motul MX Nationals after sustaining a serious spinal injury on Saturday.

Arbon crashed while running in a motor in the lead-up to his home race on the calendar, sustaining a clean fracture of the C6 vertebra.

It was a scary incident for the well-liked South Australian, cruelly missing one of his most anticipated events on the schedule, however he has movement in all limbs. He’s currently recovering in Royal Adelaide Hospital.

“Luke was bedding in an engine on Saturday on his home track that he’s ridden a million times and just came up short and landed on the point of his head,” explained SD3 team owner Stephen McKinnon.

“He had a clean fracture of the C6 vertebra, so there was no displacement at all and no chord damage and he’s got movement in all limbs. He’ll be in hospital for a few days and in a neck brace for a number of weeks, but right now the prognosis is pretty good. It will be a tough recovery, but Luke is a tough cookie so I’m sure he’ll be okay.

“Luke’s still in hospital now and working through everything we need to do, but it certainly gave us a scare. Thankfully he will be okay, we’ve just got a lot of water to go under the bridge before then.”

Prior to the Murray Bridge round Arbon was sitting third in the championship standings, now 11th after missing both of Sunday’s motos in South Australia.