Olympic champion cyclist Dani King has left hospital today after spending almost a fortnight being treated for the collapsed lung and five broken ribs she sustained during a training crash on 6 November.
The Wiggle Honda rider, who together with Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell won gold in the team pursuit at London 2012, spent two days in intensive care at the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil following the incident.
It happened near Merthyr Tydfil when one of the riders accompanying King, who lives in Cardiff, crashed after riding through a puddle which concealed a pothole, bringing down King and a number of other cyclists.
She remained in hospital to allow medical staff to make sure that all of the fluid that had entered her lung as a result of its collapse and reinflation had been drained.
The 23-year-old will now continue her recuperation at home with the aim of getting back to full fitness as soon as possible.
King, who is aiming to help Team GB retain that team pursuit title at Rio 2016 but had already decided to sit out the current track season, was full of praise for the medical staff who have helped put her on the road to recovery.
“Obviously the last 11 days have been a traumatic time for me, my family and my friends,” she said, “but the treatment and care I have received here in the Prince Charles Hospital has been incredible.
“All the NHS staff could not have done more to help and support me. I’ll always be grateful for the unbelievable care I’ve received here at Prince Charles Hospital and will never be able to thank the staff enough.”
She went on: “I’d also like to thank my incredible family, boyfriend and friends for their support in helping me get through this. I must also thank British Cycling, my team Wiggle Honda and all my sponsors who have done everything possible to make my life easier.”
King added: “Finally I need to say a huge thank you to all the fans that have wished me well through social media and other channels.
“Their well wishes have been a constant source of strength, thank you all.”
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.