Marc Hirsch will miss the early part of the 2022 season due to buttock surgery and will be out of racing until at least March.

The Swiss rider's hip problems are long-standing, dating back three years. The start of the 2021 season, his first race with UAE Team Emirates after moving from Team DSM, has been postponed until the Volta a Catalunya in late March.

"I had hip surgery three weeks ago, so I don't know my race program yet.

"For the last three years I've had problems with my right hip, there wasn't enough space in my right hip. So what [the doctors] did was to go in and shave the bone and make more space."

He also said that the risk of crashing was too great to justify racing early in the season, and that he would not compete in Paris-Roubaix, and that other cobbled classics such as the Tour de Flanders would depend on his recovery, but hoped to participate in the Ardennes Classics. Hirschi won La Flèche Wallonne in 2020, finished second in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and sixth in 2021.

Hirschi's season last year was erratic and injury-prone compared to his breakthrough campaign in 2020; two years ago he burst onto the scene with Team Sunweb with a world championship podium and a Tour de France stage win. 11]

Since moving to the UAE, he has taken on a supportive role, helping Tadej Pogachar win the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour de France. Even with the addition of support riders and GC-men such as Joan Almeida, George Bennett, and Juan Ayuso, and the team's depth of riders, Hirschi believes that his role will ultimately remain the same.

"The team gets stronger every year," he said. We grow a lot. I met [the new players] at the last camp and I think we have a really good group for next year. We're growing every year. And for me, I don't think my role will change much."

But for now, the 23-year-old Swiss's goals for next season are simple: "I want to focus on rehabilitation. I want to concentrate on my rehabilitation.