ANAHEIM, CA, JAN. 5 – Team Honda Muscle Milk’s Trey Canard won’t be on the starting gate Saturday night at Angel Stadium for the AMA Monster Energy Supercross Series and he’s not sure when he will be after suffering a broken collarbone the first week in December that required surgery.
“I’ll be racing this Saturday… at Pole Position [an indoor karting facility],” Canard deadpanned when asked about a return to racing. “I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know the answer to that question. We’ll see.”
Canard, who somehow manages to stay positive despite seemingly a never-ending list of injuries, was light-hearted in his responses at the pre-Anaheim Supercross press conference held today at Angel Stadium. When asked what he does with his downtime while recovering from injury, Canard said: “I resort to hard alcohol.”
“Unfortunately, I’ve been able to practice that a few times this year and I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing what to do with my time,” Canard said when he got serious. “I try to just be involved – number one with my racing, the training and just keeping up with everyone and making sure I stay in tune with everything that’s happening. The other side is I try to take advantage of the opportunity. It’s not very often that we get to spend a few months at home with not racing and that and I’ve had the opportunity to see family and do things that I don’t always get to do. My focus is always to maintain my goals and to always strive to come back stronger and to continue to work hard. It’s given me a great opportunity to do a few other things.”
Event emcee Jeff Emig asked Canard if he finds the injuries [two broken femurs and the latest collarbone injury] frustrating or motivating.
“After the first injury or the third one?” Canard said. “The first one was motivating because I had a great season up to that point and was just a small setback for me and I was able to come back and build up some momentum for the end of the series. Washougal rolls around and it was like what? I didn’t know what to say. It was a tough thing that second one. But the collarbone… surprisingly, I had a very good attitude about it and I think through the adversity it’s making me a stronger person as well as a stronger athlete and I’m just trying to survey myself and try to figure out what I can do best. If there’s one thing I do, and I think it’s my strength, is always giving it my best. I continue to strive and if that means race wins or more injuries, I’m going to do my best.”
