Later this month, U2 were scheduled to play L.A. radio station KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas show, and it would’ve been a rare thing to see the band share a stage with a ton of other bands. It won’t happen now because of Bono’s recent bicycling injury. And during a call to KROQ’s morning show today, Bono’s bandmate the Edge described to the world just how nasty Bono’s injuries were. Here’s what he said:

There were a lot of people in the park and he just wasn’t paying enough attention. He was going fast down a bit of a hill and somebody come out onto the cycle way. He swerved to avoid them and just went straight over the handlebars… The poor guy. Basically his left elbow was shattered, so a lot of the work was reconstructing the joint and putting in wires and plates. He showed us an X-ray a couple of days later and it looked like a miniature of the Eiffel Tower was in his elbow. Then the same had to happen with the fracture of his pinkie. The joint there was totally messed up. That needed a bone graft. Then the most vulnerable was his upper back and scapula. They couldn’t put any plates in there. They decided to not do surgery. So, basically he’s got to be very still and not move around until that’s healed.

(via the @U2 fan site)

Earlier this week, the other members of U2 did play one show without Bono: the World AIDS Day show at Times Square, at which Bruce Springsteen and Chris Martin both filled in for the frontman. The Edge says he enjoyed the experience, but he doesn’t want to do any more like that: “It was an amazing experience, but it feels a little bit like we were cheating on Bono… It never happens, and it’s not an experience I want to repeat again… We can’t have somebody fronting U2 for a whole show. That would be ridiculous.”