Nicky Hayden has undergone successful surgery on the right wrist he broke in two places during a multi-rider collision at the first corner of the final MotoGP race in Valencia earlier this month.
The 2006 world champion broke his right scaphoid bone when he was caught up in an incident involving factory Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi, Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista and Frenchman Randy de Puniet.
The injury forced the American to miss a crucial two-day test session at Valencia on Ducati’s new factory GP12 1000cc machine.
Hayden underwent surgery yesterday (Monday) at the Fremont Sports Therapy and Surgery Center in California. Dr. Arthur Ting placed a small screw in Hayden’s fractured scaphoid. The radial styloid, which was also fractured in the Valencia spill, was not treated.
Hayden said: “Everything went pretty smoothly. The scaphoid is a slow-healing bone, so you don’t want to wait, only to find out in January that it’s not healing correctly. I’m happy to get it fixed right so that I’ll be ready to go when I need to be.”
Hayden now needs to wear a brace on the recovering wrist for four weeks but he is confident he will be fit to return to action when winter testing resumes at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia on January 31.
source: MCN
