Troy Lee Designs Red Bull GasGas 450MX entry Justin Barcia will be sidelined for the next three rounds of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, which is a strategy to allow his multiple knee injuries time to recover properly.

After continuing to experience trouble with his knees that have largely affected his outdoor campaign, Barcia has opted to sit out the next block of races – aiming to return for his home race at Unadilla in August.

Barcia has been racing through ligament and tendon damage across both knees throughout the outdoors, but has finally opted to allow them time to recuperate properly with a month off altogether.

“Unfortunately, I’ve been dealing with some knee injuries since about the week before Salt Lake City, and I’ve been pushing through it,” the 32-year-old confirmed. “One knee has a torn/sprained MCL, and my other knee had bursitis, with a little bit of a tear in the meniscus – not too bad, nothing that requires surgery.

“Because of the swelling, two of my tendons finally let go at High Point, but the good thing is that technically they will just scar up and be fine. I haven’t been riding during the week at all, just been trying to race on the weekends for my fans and the crew, but it’s got to the point now that we have a really good bike, my riding is really good, and these knees are holding us back.

“We want to be better than fifth-to-eighth, so we are going to take some time off. I will still be able to train quite a bit, do PT on the knees, and see what we can do to get better. All in all, they just need some time to heal up, so the goal right now, I would say, is to come back for Unadilla. I won’t miss too many races if everything works out, which I believe it will, and then we’ll come back swinging!”

Southwick saw Barcia qualify seventh before delivering a convincing P6 result in moto one, but was forced to recover from a fall at the beginning of race two. He battled back to 11th by race’s end, which sealed him seventh overall, and is currently ranked eighth in the point standings.