Following today’s MotoGP dramatic qualifying session at Indianapolis, that saw in Casey Stoner, Ben Spies and Nicky Hayden all suffer massive highside going towards turn 14, the three riders were all transferred to the Indianapolis Methodist Hospital to undergo further medical tests.
Nicky Hayden has been ruled out of today’s race as he suffered a slight concussion – hard knocks to the head and losing consciousness and successive confusion are one of the few things that will deem a rider unfit to race – fortunately his head scans were negative, but the Ducati rider did fracture his second and third metacarpal of his right hand.
Ben Spies walked away from his crash and didn’t pick up any fractures, but he did suffer some massive bruising to his back, pelvis and suspected ligament damage to his shoulder, but he will attempt to race according to his latest Tweet.
Casey Stoner was diagnosed with torn ligaments in his right foot/ankle by the doctors at the track medical center – Dr.
Marco Russo of the Clinica Mobile declared that the Australian could be fit enough to race – pumped with painkillers – however Stoner is still in the hospital undergoing further tests and a further update on his condition and whether he’ll race will be issued later on.
Hector Barbera has already been ruled out of the GP following his highside on Friday morning that resulted in fractures to his vertebrae.
UPDATE:Repsol Honda has now confirmed that Casey Stoner has sustained several small chipped bone fractures, a 10mm fracture on the talar dome below the tibia and fibula, contusions to the anterior tibia, posterior tibia and medial malleolus, and soft tissue swelling around the ankle.
He has also torn his deltoid, anterior talofibial, calcaneal and fibular ligaments in addition to a high ankle sprain.
Here’s what Stoner had to say:It’s the first time in my career that I haven’t been able to get up and walk away from an accident myself.
As soon as I stood up, I looked down and saw my foot was at a strange angle to my leg.
I had a shooting pain in my lower leg, then I felt a crack as my ankle popped back in.
It was very painful and I was sure I had broken something.
The local staff at the circuit Medical Centre were all very helpful and after taking some initial x-rays they agreed I should go to hospital for further checks.
The team that looked after me at the Methodist Hospital were fantastic, so professional, attentive and incredibly helpful, I’d like to thank them all for taking good care of me.
They confirmed that I had some chipped bone around my ankle and a small fracture, but I was concerned about the damage done to any ligaments so we did an MRI scan.
This showed that I had torn almost every ligament in my ankle and heavily bruised my tibia.
I need to see how I feel tomorrow morning to understand if I’m able to race.
I am really disappointed as I felt we had the package for pole in this race and a strong chance for the win.
Many other riders came off today, I hope they are ok.
We’ll see how we feel in the morning and will do all we can to be on the grid”