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[Ninjette Newsbot]

Nicky Hayden injured in training accident

Ducati MotoGP rider breaks shoulder and fractures two ribs in indoor flat track crash, may miss Sepang pre-season test in JanuaryOne of the risks of being a professional motorcycle racer is that your off-season training often involves riding motorcycles. There have already been several high-profile motocross racers who have been injured while testing/training recently, and now Ducati MotoGP race Nicky Hayden has added his name to the list. Keeping the injury secret until now (and avoiding posting anything on his Twitter account, which has been a source of consternation between many racers and teams/manufacturers), Hayden apparently crashed while riding at a “private indoor flat track facility� near his Owensboro, Kentucky home on Tuesday. It was supposedly his first time back on a motorcycle since fracturing his scaphoid bone (a small bone within the wrist that is notoriously difficult to heal because of its limited blood flow) at the first turn crash at the Valencia GP in November. Hayden broke his left scapula and fractured two ribs in the indoor flat track incident.

He immediately underwent numerous examinations (X-ray, CAT scan, MRI) to determine the extent of his injuries, and at the moment, there are no plans for surgery. Hayden plants to have the injuries reassessed next week by Dr. Arthur Ting in Fremont, California, to determine the healing progression and whether he will be fit enough to take part in the upcoming Sepang MotoGP preseason test scheduled for January 31.

“Obviously, injuries are never good,� Hayden said in a Ducati press release, “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.�




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