Jett Lawrence is out of this year's SMX Playoffs and World Championship due to another ankle surgery, which took place last week. This weekend at the race we were able to learn more about that surgery after chatting with Jett's father, Darren, and trainer Johnny O'Mara.

Jett's social media post last week showed a bunch of hardware sitting on a table, and that's what he had removed from the ankle. After Jett broke his talus back in December, that hardware was installed and was supposed to stay in forever. At Ironman, though, he was experiencing a lot of pain. He got the ankle checked in the days after the race, and it turned out a screw was backing out, and also some scar tissue was catching on a ligament. 

So with the screw backing out, the decision was made to just remove all the hardware and screws. Darren Lawrence seemed very positive about this, actually, because he thinks Jett will be able to gain a lot more range of motion and get rid of much of the pain that was plauging him throughout the summer. We'd surmise this will be especially important for supercross, which requires more flexibility in the ankle to handle steep jump faces. As an example, Jett was trying to transition away from the special foot peg Honda had developed for him, because he knew he would not be able to use it on the SMX or supercross tracks that were upcoming, because that foot peg restricts movement.

Surgery will cost Jett a shot at defending his Monster Energy SMX Championship, but it could get him closer to full health for supercross in January.