Broken wrist rules Nicky Hayden out of Valencia test

Nicky Hayden was forced to withdraw from today’s crucial MotoGP test in Valencia after discovering he has broken his right wrist in two places after a first corner crash in Sunday’s race.

The American initially thought he had escaped with no injuries when he was caught up in a first corner collision with factory Ducati team-mate Valentino Rossi, Randy de Puniet and Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista.

He was in his leathers this morning and ready to begin testing Ducati’s new GP12, which features a conventional aluminium chassis, when he went for a final check-up at the Clinica Mobile.

Doctors then urged him to go to a hospital in Valencia for detailed scans, which revealed the right scaphoid and radius were broken in his right wrist.

The 2006 world champion said: “I woke up this morning and was still a little bit sore but I was ready to go out. I’d already got my leathers on and then I realised my hand was still pretty sore, so I went to the Clinica to get a painkiller and when I got down there they looked at my wrist and said it wasn’t right. I needed to get a proper scan on it at hospital and I found out that I’ve got a broken scaphoid and radius, so there’s certainly no testing for me.”

Hayden said he would wait for specialists to assess his scans before deciding whether to undergo surgery, with the scaphoid bone notoriously difficult to heal.

He has until January 31 before winter testing resumes at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia and the Kentucky rider added: “We just talked to the doctors and we’re sending out some files to get some opinions but the scaphoid bone could heal because I have time but most likely it will need a screw or a pin in there. The scaphoid is very tricky, especially on the right wrist and you need to let it heal. It’s a bone that doesn’t get much blood circulation and it can take a while to heal. The right wrist is really important and that’s why I’m not going to play with it and test. I could probably shoot it up and try to test because it is important with some stuff to evaluate. Right now the bone is still in line and we don’t want it to shift and cause a big problem.”

Hayden said it was frustrating to miss the opportunity to assess the GP12, which is running a conventional twin spar aluminium frame to improve front-end feeling and help reduce an understeer problem.

But he said recent tragic events in Sepang, where Marco Simoncelli lost his life in a horrific accident, put his injury into perspective.

He told MCN: “I’m pretty bummed out because obviously we’ve got to do a lot of work on the 1000 and Ducati has been doing a lot of work since I last rode the bike. It is frustrating but after what we’ve seen happen in the last couple of weeks I’m not going to complain too much about a broken wrist. Four guys crashing in Turn one could have been a lot worse and I am lucky it is the end of the season.”