Toseland hopeful of Brno return

James Toseland will travel to Brno this weekend for round eight of the World Superbike Championship hopeful that he can complete practice, qualifying and two races.

The two time WSB champion suffered a career threatening hand and wrist injury during testing in March where he badly displaced a number of bones. After recovering from surgery the BMW Motorrad Italia rider tried to return at Monza and then at Miller, but was unable to start the races.

After Miller, Toseland suffered acute pain and swelling and was advised to completely rest his injured hand meaning that he missed the Misano and Aragon races all together.

Speaking to MCN, Toseland said: “I saw the specialist yesterday and everything is looking good so the plan is to start the weekend and give it a go. We’re going to know a lot more after the two sessions on Friday but I’m desperate to get back on the bike again.

“The problem is that because I was told to rest it I haven’t done any training at all with it. Yesterday I did a steady lap of the TT course on a road bike just to do the action of opening the throttle and operating the brake and today I can definitely feel that I’ve done something. Obviously there is a big difference to going stead on a road bike to riding a WSB bike at full speed.”

While Toseland is clearly itching to get back on his race bike this weekend his ultimate focus is to be fit and ready for his home race at Silverstone on 28th to 30th July.

“I want to do two races at Silverstone. I want to be racing competitively again – that’s my goal. I’ll give it everything I’ve got to be out in front of the home crowd and the good thing is that after Silverstone there’s a four week break if I need it to recover.”

Italian Lorenzo Lanzi, who replaced Toseland at Misano and Aragon has been invited to Brno as a possible stand in for Toseland should he be unable to ride competitively.