Screw placed in Hayden’s injured wrist

Nicky Hayden underwent surgery on Monday to help rectify the right wrist injury which was sustained in the season-ending MotoGP of Valencia. The 2006 World Champion was one of four riders to retire from the race in the first-corner accident.

The operation took place at the Fremont Sports Therapy and Surgery Center in Fremont, California, with a screw being inserted into Hayden’s fractured scaphoid. The radiad styloid is also fractured, but not treated on this occasion.

“Everything went pretty smoothly,” Hayden commented. “The scaphoid is a slow-healing bone, so you don’t want to wait, only to find out in January that it’s not healing correctly. I’m happy to get it fixed right so that I’ll be ready to go when I need to be.”

Hayden must now wear a brace and use a bone stimulator for the period of a month; he will then undergo an x-ray to assess the status of his wrist. Ducati has stressed via a statement that the American is confident of reaching a full level of fitness in time for the first day of 2012 pre-season testing in Malaysia, on Tuesday 31 January.