The American endured a horrific crash during qualifying for the Dutch TT that saw him flung from his bike at 140mph and slam feet-first into the tyre wall.
He was immediately diagnosed with a broke a bone the bottom of his left tibia and an ankle bone, before further examinations on his return to the USA from Assen showed another tibia break just below the knee, along with cartilage damage that caused his knee to lock.
He underwent surgery in Los Angeles on Monday to reset his ankle bones and repair the damaged meniscus, but will not be able to bear weight on his left leg for three weeks.
Michael Bartholemy, Kawasaki’s Competition Manager, commented, “I am sorry for John, as I know he was looking forward to racing in front of his home crowd at Laguna Seca, where he always enjoys a lot of support. But it´s just not possible; he has had surgery to fix the injuries he sustained at Assen, and now he needs sufficient recovery time to ensure that he’s fully fit before he makes his racing return.”
“Obviously we are hoping that this return will come in the Czech Republic Grand Prix,” continued Bartholemy, “but we will be monitoring John’s recovery very closely and we have no intention of putting him back on the bike before he’s ready. If this means he doesn´t race at Brno, then that´s how it will be, because we don’t want to risk making things worse by allowing him to return before he is fully recovered.”
The ‘Team Green’ boss added, “Now we know the full extent of John’s injuries we are looking at the possibility of running a replacement rider at Laguna Seca. We will make a further announcement about this ahead of this weekend´s German Grand Prix.”
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