Bono: 'Not clear I'll ever play guitar again' after bike accident

Bono has said he does not know if he will be able to play guitar again.

Writing in an A-Z retrospective on 2014 on the U2 website, he said recovery from injuries sustained on his 50th birthday in a cycling accident in New York's Central Park in November had been more difficult than he thought.

He says: "As I write this, it is not clear that I will ever play guitar again. The band have reminded me that neither they nor Western civilization are depending on this."

He says he broke his hand, shoulder, elbow and his face, now has a titanium elbow and "no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket".

However, he said the real injury was to his Irish pride, as it was discovered that under his tracksuit he was wearing yellow and black Lycra cycling shorts which he admits to being "not very rock 'n' roll".

He also says: "Edge says I look at my body as an inconvenience...The problem, as I see it, is that I think my head is harder than any other surface."

Bono adds that he has cancelled all public engagements for the first half of this year.

He refers too to telling Graham Norton about his diagnosis of glaucoma, in explanation for why he always wears tinted glasses.

"I think it shocked him a little bit… it certainly surprised the band that I'd gone public," he writes.

Bono also addresses the iTunes controversy, and acknowledges that for some people, being pushed the U2 album Songs of Innocence "felt it was like someone robbing their phone in the pub and taking a couple of photos before leaving it back on the table... some kind of breach of privacy which was really not intended".

Others who complained because they "like being annoyed", he referred to his recent 'apology' on Jimmy Kimmel Live: