Injured Al Rajhi to miss Portugal and Greece

Yazeed Al-Rajhi will miss the next two rounds of his planned WRC-2 campaign while he recovers after a serious crash on a cross-country rally in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi, who won the WRC-2 class on Rally Sweden, was leading the Ha’il International Rally when his MY Racing Hummer nosedived more than 20 feet from the top of a sand-dune.

Both Al-Rajhi and his co-driver, the Frenchman Alex Winocq, suffered broken vertebrae in the impact. Al Rajhi was transferred hospital in Riyadh, where he will undergo surgery this Friday. Winocq’s injures did not require surgery and he has since returned home to France.

Al Rajhi’s WRC co-driver Michael Orr was at the Ha’il Rally and explained what had happened.

“They approached a dune and thought there were tracks that led over it, but when they got the top it was a sheer drop,” Orr told wrc.com. “The car fell seven or eight metres before landing on its nose. Both Yazeed and Alex got out of the car but they were in some pain.”

Al Rajhi was assessed in Riyad’s intensive care unit on Thursday night and was then moved to another ward while he waits for specialist surgery.

“There’s no major rush on the operation. Everything stable. I last saw him on Friday but we’re in touch daily and he’s relaxed and in good spirits,” Orr said.

“Knowing Yazeed, he’ll push for the earliest comeback that’s physically possible but clearly he’ll be out of action for quite a while. At this stage three or four months seems the best guess, so I don’t expect we’ll be back until Rally Finland,” he added.