Nicky Hayden - Photo Credit: Ducati
Nicky Hayden is a doubt for the first test session of 2012 after injuring himself while training near his home in Owensboro, Kentucky. The Ducati rider was riding at a private indoor flat track facility, the first time he had climbed on a motorcycle since crashing out of the final race of 2011 at Valencia, when he made contact with another bike.
The subsequent fall caused a broken left scapula and two fractured ribs and Hayden will be reassessed next week by Dr. Arthur Ting in Fremont, California, to check on his progress. Testing for the new season begins in Malaysia on January 31st and Hayden expects to know in the next few weeks whether he will be able to ride the new Ducati GP12 at Sepang.
“Obviously, injuries are never good,” Hayden said, “but it's part of motorcycle racing. Just like at Valencia, it was kind of a freak accident. I was starting to train again, like I normally do during the winter, at a private track near my house. I came up behind another rider, and he went to move out of the way. I wasn't going that fast, but he clipped my front wheel and I went down and landed pretty hard on my left shoulder, and that was it. It's disappointing, but there's nothing to do about it but heal quickly.”
“Anyway, this doesn't change my expectations for 2012 which, fortunately, is just around the corner.”
