"Tadej suffers fractures to the left scaphoid and semi-lunar bone (of his left hand). The scaphoid will require an operation. He will be operated on this afternoon (Sunday) by a hand surgeon here in Genk," the team's medical director, Adrian Rotunno, said in a statement.
The duration of his convalescence is not specified. The injury comes just over two months before the start of the Tour de France which Pogacar, winner in 2020 and 2021, hopes to win back after finishing second behind Denmark's Jonas Vingegaard in 2022.
The Slovenian fell at high speed on Sunday after 85 km of racing, before the main climbs on the program, along with Denmark's Mikkel Honoré (EF Education), who also retired.
Pogacar's teammates all stopped to wait for their leader to bring him back into the pack, but the Slovenian was unable to leave.
The retirement of the 24-year-old Slovenian rider, who has just won the Amstel Gold Race and the Flèche Wallonne, deprived the race of a royal and long-awaited explanation with the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, the defending champion.
Very skilled on a bike, the Slovenian is a rider who falls very little and the last time he did not finish a race was at the Clasica San Sebastian, at the end of July 2022, an event won by... Remco Evenepoel.
Irresistible in recent weeks, Pogacar, winner in 2021 on the "Doyenne", the oldest of the classics, was aiming for a hat-trick in the Ardennes achieved by only two riders in history, Davide Rebellin in 2004 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011.
The double winner of the Tour de France (2020 and 2021) had since the beginning of the season a staggering record of twelve successes in eighteen days of racing, including Paris-Nice and the Tour of Flanders.
Fourth Monument of the year, Liège-Bastogne-Liège is a very hilly classic with a total of eleven climbs on the program this year.
The race is regularly marked by spectacular falls like the one last year of Julian Alaphilippe.
Then two-time reigning world champion, the Frenchman was seriously injured after hitting a tree at full speed, suffering from a pneumothorax, a fracture to a shoulder blade and several broken sides.
© 2023 AFP