Slowly does it for Lavillenie on road to recovery
Two-time world pole vault bronze medallist Renaud Lavillenie is still two weeks away from resuming training with a pole as he recovers from surgery on his fractured left hand.
Lavillenie went under the knife early last month after a training accident, but a meeting Wednesday with the surgeon who carried out the procedure didn't see him leave with the green light for full training.
"After examining the X-ray, the surgeon was happy with the ongoing knitting of the fracture but you could still see the fracture line," said Lavillenie, the 2010 European champion who will be among the favourites for the world indoors in Istanbul in March.
"He's now authorised me to use my hand 'normally', so I can resume weight training, exercises on the fixed bar etc, but not the pole.
"I've still got two weeks without the pole so as to not overburden the bone. A tough wait but a necessary one so the bone sets 100 percent solid."