Fabio Jakobsen has given an update as he recovers from his career-threatening crash at last year's Tour de Pologne, having undergone another surgery to his face on Thursday.
The Deceuninck-QuickStep sprinter had surgery to insert implants into his jaw as well as reconstructing scars in his mouth but hopes to make a rapid recovery and ride his bike in a week.
Jakobsen suffered serious injury after Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) squeezed him towards the barriers during the sprint on stage 1 in Poland, with the Dutchman receiving a nine-month ban from racing as a result of his action.
Jakobsen has undergone several surgeries since and was put into a coma shortly after the crash. His injuries included a brain contusion, skull fracture, broken nose, torn palate, the loss of 10 teeth, and loss of parts of his upper and lower jaw.
He returned to the bike in late November of last year and recently joined up with his team for their pre-season training camp in Spain in January. However he still needs time before returning to racing.
"The coming days look a lot like this… a lot of cooling (and liquid food)," Jakobsen wrote on Instagram with a photo of himself holding a cooling pack to his jaw.
"Yesterday I had another operation, that went well. The surgeons drilled implants in my upper and lower jaw and reconstructed the scars in my mouth.
"For now, a week of rest and let the body do its healing. Hopefully, next week I can restart training again and build up towards races!"
In a press conference at training camp last month, Jakobsen expressed hope that he'd return to racing this season, though was unable to say exactly when that might be.
"I'm already back on the bike," he said.
"I'd like to give you a date - but the first date I can give you is February when I have my next surgery. I have to see how that one goes. If it goes well, then maybe one or two months after I can race again.
"Right now, I'm riding my bike again. I'm doing training rides with the guys here. Not all the rides and sometimes I take a shortcut to the hotel but the feeling on the bike is OK."
Earlier this month, teammate and lead-out man Michael Mørkøv said that he had been training with Jakobsen, adding that "he is at a good level" and "I don't think it will be long before he's at the forefront of races again."
