Supercars 2021: Shane van Gisbergen reveals extent of collarbone injury

A sore Shane van Gisbergen remains hopeful of making it onto the track at Sandown, as the Supercars champ races the clock in his recovery from a broken collarbone.

Shane van Gisbergen. Picture: Getty Images

Shane van Gisbergen is “sore” but hopeful he will be “ready to go” for the Supercars round at Sandown this weekend after collarbone surgery.

The Bathurst 1000 champion has waged a battle against time to be ready for the second round after breaking his collarbone in a mountain biking accident less than two weeks ago.

Van Gisbergen had a plate and screws inserted in his collarbone during an operation to repair the injury on March 6.

Leading the Supercars championship after back-to-back wins at the Bathurst 500, the Triple Eight star has tested his injury with some laps on track at Queensland Raceway this week and was encouraged about his racing prospects.

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Shane van Gisbergen has revealed the extent of damage to his collarbone.

“I’m still a bit sore,” van Gisbergen said in a team preview for the round.

“But after some laps in a couple of cars during the week, and with a few more days to recover before the first session at Sandown, hopefully I can be fit and ready to go.”

Van Gisbergen holds a 33-point lead in the championship over Chaz Mostert after the opening round.

The Sandown round consists of three 36-lap sprint races, which van Gisbergen was eager to attack at the venue after its long-time endurance event status.

“Sandown is simple in design but is a really fun track. It’s normally an enduro round, but hopefully it will be good for sprint racing,” he said.

“It’s a track with not many fast corners, so you can normally make some moves which makes the racing quite competitive and good to watch. It’s also forgiving if you don’t qualify well – it’s not the end of the world if you start the race towards the back of the grid.”

Meanwhile, graphic images revealing the extent of damage to van Gisbergen have emerged, after he shared an X-ray image of the large plate he had inserted in his broken collarbone on his social media.

The images — posted with the caption “couple of Tek screws hopefully hold me together” — show nine screws holding the plate in place.

Shane van Gisbergen opened the season with a dominant win in the Bathurst 500 last month. Picture: Getty Images

It comes as the Triple Eight star took to the track in Queensland to test out his injury just days out from the Sandown SuperSprint where he would be striving to build on his championship lead after a dominant start to the year at the Bathurst 500.

Van Gisbergen cut laps in his Bathurst 6 Hour car at Queensland Raceway on Tuesday and again in a Toyota 86 course car at Norwell Motorplex on Wednesday.

Triple Eight said van Gisbergen only completed a “couple of laps” on Tuesday and the final call on whether the Bathurst 1000 champion would race at Sandown would be left up to him.

Van Gisbergen will travel with the team to Melbourne on Thursday as planned and might not make a final decision on racing until after driving in first practice at Sandown.

In a bid to speed-up his recovery, van Gisbergen has spent time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to promote healing of the injury.

His Bathurst 1000-winning co-driver Garth Tander is on stand-by to race car No.97 at Sandown should van Gisbergen not be fit to take the wheel.

Van Gisbergen’s collarbone injury would have to withstand three 36-lap sprint races across two days to complete the round at Sandown.

Originally published as Supercars 2021: Shane van Gisbergen reveals extent of collarbone injury