Gus Greensmith has revealed the full extent of the injuries he suffered in his Rally Italy Sardinia crash as he returns to World Rally Championship action this weekend.
Greensmith left the road on the fifth stage of the Sardinian event, red-flagging the stage as he was taken to local hospital overnight with pain in his back.
The WRC2 driver was soon discharged and is now feeling “90%” fit ahead of Rally Estonia – his first competitive action since June 1 – but has spent the last seven weeks allowing himself to recover.
Greensmith had planned to contest Rally Liepāja (June 16-18) in the European Rally Championship – a rally which debuts in the WRC next season – but was forced out due to his injuries.
“Yeah, it was a big one,” Greensmith told DirtFish.
“Wasn’t the biggest crash I’ve ever had but it was certainly the most painful one, just hit a tree head on at 70 and we stopped.
“There’s not a lot for your lungs or organs to go [stopping that suddenly so] a collapsed lung and lung contusion, so had a while recovering.
“I was only supposed to do Latvia, never Kenya, so unfortunately I missed Latvia but yeah, had plenty of time to recover.
“I said to my dad, ‘Do you think I can do Latvia if I’ve not broken my back?’ in the hospital and the following morning when I stood up I was like ‘yeah, I don’t think I’m doing Latvia’.
“But feeling 90% back to normal.
“The good thing is Estonia was always supposed to be a non-points scoring rally for me this year,” he added, “so it gives me the time to get back into it before we score points in Finland.”
Greensmith’s priority this weekend therefore is to build himself up for Finland, which runs in two weeks’ time.
“I think the main thing is to find a nice rhythm, feel comfortable and confident in the car because here the result doesn’t particularly matter,” he explained.
“Obviously we want to do well, but what matters is we turn up to Finland fully prepared. Literally as soon as we finish here, [we’re] driving to Finland Sunday night and straight to testing so yeah, should be well prepared for Finland.”
