It’s been a bad start for Danny van Poppel with his new team Sky. The young sprinterhas  to postpone his season debut. "Due to some heavy training, my knee has become overloaded," he told Wielerflits.

His injury is nothing new for the youngest son of Jean-Paul van Poppel although the problems that are now bothering him, started after he has been sick. "Then we did some heavy workouts. During the work, I felt nothing, but the next day I could barely ride. I've always had some trouble with my knees. Normally it disappears, but it has been going on for a while. The pain does not go away. And that's quite worrisome. Therefore we have worked a lot in the team to find out how to move forward.”

An overloaded knee now gives the 21-year-old Sky big problems. "I have already been off the bike for two weeks and that is quite very frustrating. The races begin, you see everyone is busy with the final preparations and I have not ridden my bike for two weeks. I hope that I can ride pain free again as soon as possible. Now I have tried to train again after twelve consecutive days; an hour is good, the next hour is bad. Now we have decided to take five days of complete rest. Then we will look at it again. We hope that it is enough, otherwise I have to go to England for a scan where they will investigate everything.”

After his rest, van Poppel hopes to start his delayed season in the Middle East. Despite being off the bike for a little less than three weeks, the sprinter is not in poor condition. "If my knee will be fine this week, I think it's not that bad. I can still rectify the condition. But if it continues to go on, I will miss the next race  in  Mallorca and also the Dubai Tour. I hope not because it's a great race to start the year and to eliminate the missed training. If I don’t make it, it would be very bad.  I have not yet discussed with the team where I could start then. I must first recover fully, then we will see what the rest of my program looks like. But I was ready for the season, that’s clear.”