Reale Esponsorama Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera underwent successful surgery on a broken collarbone on Thursday, his team has confirmed.
The Spanish rider was training at his home circuit of Ricardo Tormo in Valencia earlier in the week when he crashed, fracturing the middle third of his left collarbone in five places.
The operation, carried out by Dr Xavier Mir and his team at the Hospital Universitario Dexeus in Barcelona, lasted around 90 minutes and saw a titanium plate and several screws fitted in order to secure the injury.
The surgery took slightly longer than expected due to a callus on the bone from an older collarbone injury.
2017 marks Barbera’s fourth year with the Avintia team, and his third riding Ducati machinery. The Spaniard will be kept in hospital for a further day as a precaution before beginning his rehabilitation next week.
This recovery timeframe puts his participation in next weekend’s final pre-season test in Qatar in serious doubt. This will come as a huge blow to him as he only began to make headway with the Desmosedici GP16 in the final hours of the Phillip Island test last month.
However, his Avintia team assure us that he will be ready in time for the first race of the 2017 campaign under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit on March 26.
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