Joland Neff announced via Facebook and Instagram that she had suffered a serious fall and underwent emergency surgery: "While riding my mountain bike in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, I went off the trail at high speed and crashed into a pile of tree trunks with prickly branches. My lung partially collapsed, I broke a rib and my spleen was ruptured, causing internal bleeding. To stop the bleeding, the medical team first wanted to remove my spleen with emergency surgery. But luckily, the trauma team at Mission Hospital in Asheville, NC, had an expert who could perform a procedure called embolization. Which meant he went into the artery of my leg to go up to the artery of my spleen and block it with a clot. I feel very lucky to be in such good hands!!!"

Neff thanks her friend Luca Shaw and his family from the hospital for their support. Neff also thanked the paramedics and doctors at the hospital treating her and for the moral support of her sponsor Trek. Neff continues to comment on her condition on social media: "I'm still in a lot of pain and it's hard to breathe, but my condition is stable now. I'm sleeping a lot. No further plans have been made yet."

According to Ryan Bodge, Sports Marketing Manager at Neff's bike sponsor Trek, it is currently unclear what these injuries mean for Neff's preparation for the World Cup season and her participation in the Olympics. According to the timetable before the accident, Neff was due to take part in the Cyclocross World Championships in Dübendorf, Switzerland, on February 1, 2020.