Eddy Merckx Facing Bigger Concerns than Comparisons with Tadej Pogačar

Eddy Merckx will find out Sunday if Tadej Pogačar is indeed moving closer to the title of GOAT, something Merckx has been regarded as for many decades, but the Slovenian is far from his biggest concern right now.

The 80 year old has been wrestling with health issues for several years and is likely facing another hip operation due to ongoing complications.

In all the Belgian has undergone four previous surgeries on that area, with the first as a result of a crash in December 2024.

He was training near Mechelen in Belgium when he fell crossing railway lines in Hombeek.

The circumstances of that crash were a big scare.

“During my bike ride, it suddenly started to drizzle,” he told VTM Niews at the time. “I slid with my rear wheel. I fell right on my right thigh and knew immediately that it was a fracture.

“I was panicking, because I was lying on the train tracks. I made signs, but at first no one came to help. I couldn’t straighten up.”

Merckx was ultimately helped by a motorcyclist plus two other people, but lying helpless on railway tracks was very concerning.

“Okay, the barriers were open at that time. But you never know if they suddenly close,” he said.

Four new hips

Merckx had already experienced a health scare earlier that year, undergoing emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction in March 2024. That led to a meter and a half of intestine being removed.

He said he was determined to get back on his bike following the hip operation, but things have unfortunately been complicated since then.

He underwent three further surgeries, as he recently mentioned to Het Nieuwsblad.

“I have been given a new hip four times: once a provisional, three so-called a ‘definitive,” he said.

“At least twice a week I go to Lieven Maesschalck [an elite physiotherapist] in Antwerp, and then another two times to a physiotherapist nearby.”

Merckx also had a minor stroke in August 2025. This has complicated his weekly treatments.

“The problem is that I always have to be driven around. By my wife, by my daughter, sometimes by Axel [his son – ed.]. I’m not allowed to drive because of that stroke. First you have to wait six months and then you need another check-up.”

Merckx’s latest health complication began on March 30.

“There was a new infection in my hip. I was in an incredible amount of pain,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “They tried to solve the problem with a heavy course of antibiotics, but it isn’t entirely effective. Presumably, they are going to operate on me again on Monday. The struggling can stop now, I’m fed up.”

A place in history

In that context, the question about whether or not Pogačar is a better rider than Merckx is not a pressing concern. Comparisons have been made for years, although Merckx is still way ahead of the Slovenian in terms of the number of victories.

Providing victory in Paris-Roubaix is possible on Sunday, Pogačar is on the cusp of joining Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy as the only winners of all five monuments.

However victory in the famous Roubaix Velodrome would set the UAE Emirates-XRG rider up for something nobody else has ever done: winning all five Monuments in the same season.

He’s already taken Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, and will be the big favorite for both Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Il Lombardia by virtue of his past excellence there. The latter two races are perfectly suited to his characteristics, meaning a first-ever victory in Roubaix is vital to his chances of making history.

If he lifts the cobblestone in the velodrome on Sunday the Merckx comparisons will be further energized. But with cycling’s original GOAT likely undergoing surgery yet again, what is truly important has already been underlined.

Recovery rather than Roubaix is what really matters.