Tom Sykes has undergone a successful operation on a finger injury he picked up in a fiery crash during third practice for the Portuguese World Superbike round.
The Kawasaki rider – who holds onto second in the standings after a crash for third–placed Chaz Davies in race two – suffered a suspected fractured dislocation to his left little finger when he crashed exiting Turn 8 at the Algarve circuit on Saturday morning.
Sykes was ruled out of action for the remainder of the weekend and went for surgery on Sunday, where it was revealed he had also suffered a crack to the adjacent finger and to his wrist.
The Yorkshireman has encountered a similar injury to his wrist before and was able to race with it, though it is unclear at present if he will be competing at the French round in two weeks.
“I have had an operation and the doctor seems to be happy with how it went,” he said.
“Obviously it was a nasty break and basically snapped the little finger clean in half, so it was more than a dislocation and he found a couple of other things in the hand as well – a crack in the finger next to it and a crack on the radius on the wrist.
“I have had that injury before and raced with it four days later in Australia, so I have been able to race with a broken wrist before.
“We will see what happens from now on, and see how the fingers get on in the next few days.”
Wrist injury ruled Bradl out of Sunday’s racing
Sykes was not the only rider sidelined with injury, as Honda’s Stefan Bradl was also forced to miss Sunday’s race after hurting his wrist in a race one spill.
The Honda rider – who was running inside the top eight – crashed at Turn 14 on the third tour of Saturday’s 20–lap encounter.
A check–up revealed no obvious damage to his wrist, though he began to suffer severe pain overnight on Saturday.
The German took part in Sunday morning warm–up but struggled to ride, and he was forced to withdraw in order to undergo further assessment in Germany.
“Unfortunately, yesterday’s crash led to some problems with my wrist,” said Bradl.
“We did an x–ray yesterday and it showed no fracture or damage, but during the night the situation got a bit worse because I was really in lots of pain.
“I tried this morning during warm–up with the help of Clinica Mobile – who I want to thank for the help – but I noticed almost immediately that I didn’t have the full control of the bike.
“I wasn’t fast because I was not in a condition to push, so I went back to the Clinica and the doctor suggested an MRI scan back home in order to search for any possible tiny crack or ligament damage that would explain the pain.
“Another very unlucky weekend for us, especially because we showed signs of improvement and things were looking better.”
