When we caught up with Dan Martin tonight, he had just had stitches taken out of his shin which had been put in after a crash into a ravine last week.

The Garmin-Sharp rider finished seventh overall at the recent Vuelta a Espana, yet despite his injury, he and other cyclists have to seriously debate whether they should take antibiotics.

"The problem with the antibiotics is they kill all the flora and good bacteria. [It affects] your digestion and obviously food is part of the recovery. Basically for the last five days, I wasn't getting the nutrients in and all the carbohydrates I needed, because my stomach wasn't working 100 per cent with the antibiotics," he told us on Off The Ball tonight, adding that he had no option but to take antibiotics because of the risk of infection and describing the dramatic crash as a "blur".

But overall the Irish cyclist, who suffered an injury and disappointment in the Giro d'Italia which started on home soil, was satisfied by his overall showing at the tour of Spain which started in Jerez de la Frontera in Andalucia and ended in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. 

Martin also looked forward to the World Championship and the prospect of winning some medals for Ireland.