Hopkins out for rest of the season

American John Hopkins has been diagnosed with blood on the brain following his first race crash at the Nurburgring when he was struck by another rider.

Hopkins has been plagued by injury throughout his debut WSB season and although his condition is not believed to be serious he is likely to miss the final three round of the championship at Imola, Magny Cours and Portimao.

Since joining the WSB paddock after a successful career in 500 and MotoGP, Hopkins has only raced one round of the championship uninjured, which came in his first ride on a Superbike at Valencia. In that meeting he secured 11th and 12th first time out and has subsequently only claimed one other point scoring finish when he put in an heroic performance at Donington Park to finish eighth despite it being his first race start since breaking his Femur at Assen.

Hopkins said: “I had an appointment with a neurologist as Dr Ting.  Everything went ok, but there is a small bruise to the back of the brain that was bleeding but not anymore. I’m rescheduled to come back in 6 weeks to re check and see if there is any change in size, but it means that I’m most likely going to be out for the rest of the season.”