US MotoGP: Casey Stoner to undergo immediate medical checks

Casey Stoner has delayed his return journey back to Europe to undergo rigorous medical checks near San Francisco later on today after his fourth place finish in Laguna Seca.
Renowned MotoGP medical expert Dr Art Ting will assess Stoner in a bid to diagnose the Australian’s recent health problem.
Although the 23-year-old escaped a repeat of the stomach cramps and nausea that proved so restrictive in Catalunya and Assen last month, Stoner was still struggling with his stamina in America.
He also suffered arm pump during the 32-lap race in which he bravely mounted a podium challenge until the final third.
Having quickly surrendered second to Valentino Rossi and the famous Corkscrew on lap two, Stoner retaliated immediately and kept the eight-times world champion at bay until lap 12.
Stoner managed to shadow Rossi for the next seven laps before fatigue and arm pump crept in, the 2007 world champion unable to maintain his pace as he slipped to fourth behind a hard-charging Jorge Lorenzo on lap 21.
By lap 27 the factory Ducati had slipped into the 1.23 bracket and was 1.5s off the pace of the top three and he said: “It has been a weekend to forget. I can’t be happy with fourth place even if it has limited the damage to my championship chances. Today I didn’t feel as bad at the end of the race as I have done in the last two but I’m still not right. I found it really difficult to keep my concentration over the last few laps and I was in a bit of a daze by the end. My left arm was feeling really tired by the end because of the fact there are so many left-handers here and my left wrist still doesn’t have the full range of movement after my operation in the winter. I’m really disappointed because without all of these problems we could have done so much better. Now we’ll focus on trying to find out the root of the problem because racing in this condition is not much fun.”