AG2R La Mondiale's Mikaël Cherel has been left nursing a broken collarbone, a collapsed lung and two broken ribs after a training crash in the south of France, during which he collided with a dog that had escaped from its owner.
"You might be wondering why I've posted this picture of a cute little dog on my timeline," he wrote in a relatively lighthearted message on Instagram on Tuesday evening. "Perhaps it's the morphine that I've been prescribed that is kicking in…
"Of course, I can't blame the dog that I crashed into after it tried to cross the road right in front of me," Cherel continued. "Neither can I blame the lady walking along the seafront from whom the dog escaped – although I can be annoyed about her act of cowardice, taking the opportunity to make her escape while I was left lying on the ground."
He then thanked a number of people by name, who were presumably passers-by, as well as the emergency services that came to his aid.
"A scan later revealed a double collarbone fracture, two broken ribs and a collapsed lung," he wrote. "But it could have been worse, as they say."
Cherel said that he was going to have to stay in hospital overnight for observation, and AG2R La Mondiale team doctor Eric Bouvat also later confirmed the injuries, adding that it was currently unknown how long the 34-year-old would be out of action for.
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