Operation goes well for McWilliams

Jeremy McWilliams has undergone successful surgery on the broken left femur he suffered in a horror crash at last week’s Jerez MotoGP test.

The 42-year-old had a rod inserted in his left femur at a private clinic in Jerez on Saturday, and is now expected to remain in Spain until this weekend before he is allowed to fly back to his Belfast home later this week.

McWilliams broke the femur and his right collarbone in a crash at turn four on the final day in Jerez on his latest test for the new Ilmor X3 800cc project.

He is expected to begin light training again in early January and an official announcement on Ilmor’s 2007 rider line-up is expected to be confirmed later this week.

McWilliams is poised to make a return to the premier class stage for the first time since 2004.

Speaking from his hospital bed, McWilliams said: “I’m hoping to be out this week and go home, but the weather is quite good here at the moment so I might hang around.

“The op went well, and I’m a bit more sore than I expected to be, then I’m hoping to get into some physio as soon as I can – perhaps even this week.”