In a New Year’s Day post on U2’s website, frontman Bono said he may never play the guitar again after a November biking accident in New York’s Central Park

“Recovery has been more difficult than I thought. ... As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again,” he wrote.

Among other injuries, the 54-year-old said, he suffered a compound fracture to the elbow where “the bone of the humerus was driven through his skin, and the bone was in six different pieces.” Bono’s elbow was repaired with three metal plates and 18 screws.

Last month, the band announced a 2015 tour called the Innocence + Experience Tour. The trek is scheduled to launch May 14 in Vancouver, Canada, and wrap Nov. 11 in Paris, with at least two shows in each city the tour visits.


“Songs of Innocence,” the band’s 13th studio album, was released in early September as part of a unique deal with Apple in which the album was made available to all iTunes users as a free download.

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Bono canceled several performances, including a weeklong stint on the “Tonight Show” and a heavily promoted appearance at KROQ-FM’s Almost Acoustic Christmas.

Staff writers Mikael Wood and Ryan Parker contributed to this report.

Follow @juliewestfall on Twitter