World No. 1 Leme Out with Partially Torn Right Groin
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning World Champion Jose Vitor Leme has been on a near-seamless march toward a second consecutive world title this season, but an MRI on Tuesday revealed Leme’s newest, and most likely toughest, opponent in the 2021 title race.
According to Dr. Tandy Freeman, Leme partially tore his right groin (Grade 2 sprain) during his event-winning, 90.75-point ride on Slingin Tears Sunday at the PBR ZipRecruiter Invitational in Newark, New Jersey.
“His injury is going to take several weeks to heal,” Freeman told PBR.com on Tuesday evening. “Anywhere from two weeks to a lot longer if he hurts it again. It is not an overnight thing. It is hard to predict how fast these things heal. Some people get better faster than others. I fully expect him to be out for a couple of weeks, and we talked about the fact that if he is not pain-free, if he doesn’t have his strength back, he might have to wait until the Finals to get on. The thing is, if he tries to go back before he gets better, he is likely to reinjure it, and then it may be worse than it is now.”
Leme is out for this coming weekend’s PBR Monster Energy Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Deadwood, South Dakota. The world No. 1 bull rider was already at Fit-N-Wise Rehabilitation Center and Performance Center in Decatur, Texas, Wednesday morning, beginning his physical therapy with Jim Bui.
Leme told PBR.com late Tuesday evening before posting on social media that he does not have an exact timetable on his injury and will not rush back to competition too soon. He is hopeful he does not have to miss too much time and can return to the arena very soon. Every week, Leme will assess where he is at in his recovery.
“I’m not going to force it to come back,” Leme said. “I’ll take the correct time to recover and be back when I feel good.”
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The good news for Leme is that his injury is not season-ending, and he does not need surgery.
“The MRI was to get an idea of how bad the injury was and to make sure it wasn’t a surgical problem,” Freeman said. “For him, fortunately, he doesn’t have an injury that needs one, which means he has a chance to be able to ride at the Finals. If he had one that was a surgical problem, it wouldn’t have boded well for the Finals.”
Freeman is advising Leme to take things extremely cautiously with his injury. If Leme were to return too soon, he could risk increasing his partial tear into a complete tear, rendering him potentially useless and a shell of his usual self for the PBR World Finals.
Leme, who has never sustained a groin injury before, has the luxury of taking things slowly with this injury. His league-leading seventh victory of the season pushed his lead atop the world standings to 866 points on No. 2 Kaique Pacheco and 914 points on No. 3 Cooper Davis.
Besides Pacheco and Davis, Leme has more than double the total world points of anyone else in the PBR.
Only five Unleash The Beast regular-season events remain until the 2021 PBR World Finals begins on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas at T-Mobile Arena.
Not including the two remaining 15/15 Bucking Battles, which are each worth a maximum of 59 world points, the most points a rider could earn per UTB weekend is 167. That is a tall task, though, asking a rider to win every round, the event average and be 90 or more points with every qualified ride.
The only way Pacheco could even catch Leme before the Finals would be for him to ride every single one of his bulls for 90 or more points and sweep the remaining five events. He would then need to make up the remaining 31 world points by riding in at least one of the two 15/15 Bucking Battles.
One rider, though, can earn a maximum of 1,094 points at the World Finals by winning every round (80 points per round win) and the event average (560 points) and posting six 90-point rides.
“I told him he has to remember that if he comes back too soon, one, he is not going to be competitive trying to go back too soon, and, two, if he reinjures it, then he really won’t be competitive when he gets to the Finals,” Freeman said. “What he needs to do is be at his best and get well before the Finals. Other people’s best shot at catching him is for him not being able to be competitive at the Finals.”
Leme leads the PBR with 43 qualified rides, a PBR record 21 90-point rides, a 66.15% riding percentage, and an average ride score of 89.7 points.
The Ribas Do Rio Pardo, Brazil, native admitted it is a hard decision to sit out as he is on the cusp of breaking a series of PBR records.
Leme won the two final rounds of competition in Newark to give himself a PBR record-tying 19 this year on the Unleash The Beast. Two-time World Champion J.B. Mauney won 19 during his 2013 championship season. Meanwhile, Leme is one win away from tying two-time World Champion Justin McBride’s PBR record of eight event wins. McBride won those eight events during his 2007 gold buckle campaign.
Regardless, Leme also knows being healthy for the PBR World Finals and cementing a second world title is the ultimate priority. Taking a week or more off vs. risking further injury is not the end of the world if it helps him finish the job he set out to accomplish at the beginning of the season.
Leme missed three events earlier this season after breaking his ankle on his first bull of the season and an additional event because of broken ribs. He still returned to competition to put together what is thus far one of the greatest seasons in PBR history.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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