Lucas Coenen's first American Supercross season will begin with a recovery. The Red Bull KTM rider confirmed on November 9 that he has undergone surgery to address a lingering leg injury sustained during the summer, an issue that compromised the end of his 2026 MXGP campaign and followed him through the Motocross of Nations.
KTM announced the procedure in a social media post, writing: "Lucas underwent surgery today to address a lingering injury sustained this summer. Wishing him a smooth recovery and a successful road back to racing."
Lucas added his own update the same day: "Different birthday spend! Finally found the problem and solved it, time to recover now." The surgery came on the day Lucas and his twin brother, Sacha, turned 20 years old.
An Injury That Derailed a Title Run
For much of the 2026 MXGP season, Lucas was the championship's benchmark. Riding the KTM 450 SX-F for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, he led the world championship standings deep into the summer, stacking overall victories including perfect 1-1 weekends in Spain and Sardinia.
The season turned at the MXGP of Great Britain in July, where Lucas crashed heavily during the qualifying race. He did not score a single championship point across the final four Grands Prix, and a title challenge that had looked firmly in his control ended with sixth place in the final standings.
Lucas still lined up for Team Belgium at the Motocross of Nations in early October, and — riding injured — finished third and fifth in his two races to help Belgium win the event for the first time since 2013. Only now, with the European season complete, has the underlying problem been addressed surgically.
Neither KTM nor Lucas has disclosed specifics of the injury beyond confirming that it involves his leg, and no details of the procedure itself have been released.
What It Means for His Supercross Debut
The timing matters because of what comes next. Lucas and his twin brother Sacha are both moving to the United States full-time for 2027, joining the Monster Energy AMA Supercross and SuperMotocross World Championship. As confirmed in KTM's 2027 lineup, Lucas steps into Red Bull KTM's 450 program while Sacha races the 250 — a structure you can see on our 2027 Team Lineups hub. It is one of the most anticipated rookie arrivals in recent memory: Lucas became the youngest-ever premier-class winner in MXGP as a rookie in 2025 and backed it up by leading the 2026 championship before his crash.
The open question is preparation. The American preseason is short and intense, and most factory riders are about to begin their boot-camp testing blocks. Neither KTM nor Lucas has provided any timeline for when he will be back on a motorcycle, when he might begin Supercross testing, or how the recovery could affect his build-up to the season opener at Anaheim 1 on January 9.
To be clear: no one has said Lucas will miss Anaheim 1, and there has been no announcement of a delayed debut. His confirmed 2027 Red Bull KTM 450 affiliation remains unchanged. What the surgery does guarantee is that the most closely watched newcomer of the 2027 season will spend at least part of his first American preseason recovering rather than riding — and until KTM provides a return-to-riding update, exactly how much of that preparation he loses remains unanswered.
There is also a team dimension to watch. Red Bull KTM's 2027 American program was built around established stars and the Coenen brothers' arrival; a compressed preseason for Lucas would shift the early testing burden and raise the stakes on his brother Sacha's parallel preparation in the 250 class. For now, though, the only confirmed facts are the surgery itself, a rider who says the problem has finally been found and fixed, and a recovery timeline that has not yet been shared. We will update this story when KTM or Lucas provides one.
Sources
Racer X — Lucas Coenen undergoes surgery; NBC Sports — Lucas Coenen undergoes surgery to repair a leg injury. KTM's original announcement was made via the team's social media channels.
Photo: KTM Images / JP Acevedo — Lucas Coenen in action for Red Bull KTM during the 2026 MXGP season.
