The 2022 FIM Supersport World Championship’s season is well underway but there’ll be a recovery period ahead for Niki Tuuli (MV Agusta Reparto Corse), after the Finnish rider suffered a crash on Sunday morning for the Estoril Round during Warm-Up. He suffered badly broken toes after they got caught in the chain of the bike during the crash. The 26-year-old underwent surgery on his foot on Sunday but unfortunately, needed further surgery on Thursday to amputate three toes. Tuuli’s season was a solid one up until the Estoril Round, finishing all races inside the top seven until he didn’t finish Race 1 at Estoril.

Posting on Instagram, Tuuli said: “Just a quick update about my condition. First surgery was on Sunday and in that operation, they tried to fix everything with nails. The damage was so bad that my toes didn’t come alive even after the surgery. The second surgery was on Thursday, and we needed to amputate my three toes unfortunately! At the moment, there’s a lot of pain and a lot more nerve pain. It looks likes on Wednesday, it will be possible to fly back home. Thanks to all for the nice messages, it means a lot to me.”

Whilst the severity of Tuuli’s injury may be bad, there’s plenty of other high-profile and highly successful motorcycle racers who have gone on to great achievements following an amputation of toes or fingers. One of the most high-profile was Daryl Beattie, who after finishing third in the 500cc World Championship standings in 1993, lost all of his toes on one foot due to a crash at Le Mans in 1994, when his foot got caught in between the chain and the rear sprocket. Beattie’s best season came in 1995 though, when he finished first or second in five of the opening six races whilst on the podium in eight of the first ten, leading the Championship at points. He ultimately finished second in the Championship behind fellow countryman Mick Doohan. In WorldSBK, Australian Troy Bayliss won his third title in 2008, having lost part of his little finger in 2007 after a Donington Park crash. This shows that Tuuli’s career is far from over.

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