David Malukas will undergo surgery Tuesday afternoon for a fractured hand he suffered mountain biking over the weekend, according to a release from Arrow McLaren on Monday evening. With less than four weeks until IndyCar's 2024 season-opener on the streets of St. Pete (March 10), Malukas' status for his planned debut with Arrow McLaren is uncertain.

According to a team official, Arrow McLaren hopes to have a timetable for Malukas' return shortly after the surgery, but the severity of the injury – and the length of time he'll be forced to sit – was not immediately clear. Before Malukas season-opening practice in St. Pete on March 8, Arrow McLaren has two tests – a manufacturer hybrid test the week of Feb. 20, and a full-field test the following week at Sebring.

Whether the team will call in a substitute driver for Malukas' testing slots, or merely rely more on Arrow McLaren teammates Alexander Rossi and Pato O'Ward is unclear. Should the third-year IndyCar driver need four weeks or more to recover, though, Arrow McLaren officials are expected to explore options to fill his seat for St. Pete, as well as the $1 Million Challenge two weeks afterward at The Thermal Club.

Among the team's options, Callum Ilott, Conor Daly and Jack Harvey all raced full-time a year ago. Harvey, though, tested recently for Dale Coyne Racing and may step into at least a part-time role with the team that is yet to fill either of its 2024 full-time rides.

Daly was recently confirmed for an Indianapolis 500-only ride with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, and he served last year as a substitute for Meyer Shank Racing (in place of the injured Simon Pagenaud) and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (after they parted with Harvey). Ilott was on Arrow McLaren leadership's radar to fill the void left by Alex Palou staying in his championship-winning ride at Chip Ganassi Racing last August, before Zak Brown, Gavin Ward, Tony Kanaan and company ultimately hired Malukas.

After splitting with Juncos Hollinger Racing in late October following a sometimes-tenuous 2023 campaign, Ilott landed a 2024 full-season ride in the World Endurance Championship with the Hertz Team Jota Porsche Hypercar squad. He will race the team's No. 12 with Will Stevens and Norman Nato. Ilott's WEC schedule begins with the series prologue Feb. 24-25 before the season-opening round March 2.

Ilott had previously stated he planned to attend multiple IndyCar races this season, even without a ride, with an eye on 2025. When asked whether he'd be available to be back in the U.S. for the St. Pete race weekend, should he be called upon, Ilott responded to IndyStar's text message with this: "Potentially."

Arrow McLaren officials, though, could also look within the organization to fill the potential void. Ex-Andretti Global IndyCar driver Zach Veach has recently logged time in the simulator for the team while also serving as a frequent spotter on race weekends. He last raced in IndyCar at Mid-Ohio in the fall of 2020 before his split with Andretti.

Though he's claimed to have run his final IndyCar race – a claim he, admittedly, has gone back on before – Brown and Ward could call on Kanaan, the team's 49-year-old sporting director who last year ran his 22nd and final Indianapolis 500. He then was kept on as a 'special advisor' through the rest of the season before being promoted to his current role this offseason, with Ward elevated from racing director to team principal.

Having last raced an Indy car on a street course at Toronto in 2019, Kanaan would have the benefit of the late-February Sebring test to help him shake off the rust. Of note, Kanaan has an extensive history with NTT Data, the one of the primary sponsors this year on Malukas' No. 6 Chevy, dating to his final three seasons with Chip Ganassi Racing (2015-17). The company stuck with the No. 10 Honda through the end of the 2022 IndyCar campaign before its switch to Arrow McLaren for the start of 2023, when it had expected to be aligned with the first of Palou's two now-aborted jumps from Ganassi to Arrow McLaren.

In two of IndyCar's most recent instances of drivers suffering broken bones in their hands, both drivers (Jimmie Johnson and Callum Ilott) missed less than a month. Johnson, in fact, pushed through an entire race weekend at Long Beach in April 2022 after suffering a fracture during Friday practice. He was affixed with a brace, but competed in practice, qualifying and the race − weathering two more crashes in the process. Johnson underwent surgery the next week, but was cleared to test on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval just over a week later.

Just over a month later, Ilott broke his hand during a crash in his 500 debut and was held out of the following weekend's street race at Belle Isle, but was cleared to race the next weekend at Road America.

On the other end of the spectrum, ex-McLaren Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo missed five races and spent nearly two months out of the cockpit last season after breaking his hand during practice at Zandvoort during the Dutch Grand Prix weekend Aug. 25. Just two races into his return to Alpha Tauri, Ricciardo would miss September races in Italy, Singapore and Japan, as well as the Qatar Grand Prix in early October before returning in the U.S. Grand Prix on Oct. 22.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: David Malukas suffered fractured hand mountain biking