Image: Foremost Media.

CDR Yamaha Monster Energy Team’s Luke Clout has been forced to the sidelines ahead of the final two rounds of the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship after breaking his arm at Coolum while training.

Returning from an injury-riddled last season, it’s been a tough year for the former MX1 champion, with his only podium coming at Maitland, where he finished second overall.

Clout’s injury will rule him out of both Queensland Moto Park (QMP) and Coolum’s ProMX finals next month, however, he’s targeting a return in time for the second round of the World Supercross Championship (WSX) in Singapore, which is still two months away.

“I was at Coolum on Sunday for a practice day,” Clout told MotoOnline. “It was literally my second lap of the day, I was just warming up and having a look at the track. I rolled over one of the tabletops over the back and got kicked a little sideways from a rut – the tabletop had some mud on top and it made me just wash out onto the downside of the jump.

“It was a pretty stupid and small crash on my behalf, but I was picking my bike up on the down-ramp, and on a practice day there’s no flag marshals. So, as I was picking my bike up, someone jumped the jump and landed on me and it was all over from there. Apparently, I got hit another two times, from what I’ve been told.

“The impact of getting landed on knocked me out, but yeah, apparently I got hit by three riders and I ended up breaking the radius in my right arm, got a concussion and picked up a pretty severe cut in my right hand. so that was pretty scary at the time, I looked down and there was blood everywhere.

“I ended up getting in to see doctor Steven Andrews at Brisbane Private Hospital, he fixed up my radius and bolted that all back together. The surgery went perfectly, so I should be back on the bike in around six weeks and back in time for supercross.

“Unfortunately, I’ll miss the last two rounds of ProMX, which is a bummer. It’s been a tough few years for me, but I know what I’m capable of and I know that I can get back to where I was, this is just another bump in the road. As I said, it’s a bummer, but I’m already looking forward to getting myself healthy, starting a new championship and getting back out there.

“I just want to thank everyone that helped me on the day, especially Ford Dale. He was there with me straight away, along with my wife and a few of the other boys that train with Ford’s crew. They helped me get through the day and get to the hospital, so I appreciate everyone that has helped or reached out to see if I’m okay. I’m looking forward to getting healed up and getting back to the races.”

With the QMP and Coolum rounds of the 2023 Penrite ProMX Championship now off the cards for Clout, he will now shift his focus to round two of WSX on 30 September. The Australian Supercross Championship (AUSX) opens one week later on 7 October in Adelaide.