Nicky Hayden is to get back to action after four races away recovering from surgery. The American had an operation to remove a row of bones in his right hand after the Sachsenring round of MotoGP, to deal with a chronic problem of pain and arthritis in his wrist.
That problem stemmed from an injury he picked up back in 2011 at Valencia, his wrist, and especially his scaphoid, never fully healing again afterwards. Hayden had the scaphoid and two other bones removed, to prevent them from causing further problems.
Such a drastic surgical procedure required a long recovery time, Hayden having been absent from the MotoGP paddock for over two months. But his recovery has been progressing well, with strength and motion returning. Hayden has spent a lot of time riding dirt track, to get back the feel of racing a motorcycle, and now feels fit enough to attempt to ride a MotoGP bike again.
The differences between riding dirt track and a MotoGP bike are large, and will show whether Hayden’s wrist is strong enough yet or not. The American’s aim at the moment is just to get the feel of riding a MotoGP bike again, and test his wrist. With three races back-to-back coming up after Aragon, it is a sensible precaution to try his wrist first, with time for it to recover afterwards.
The return of Hayden means that there will once again be an American on the GP grid. With Hayden absent, Josh Herrin having lost his Moto2 ride at the Caterham team, a 12-year string of races with at least one American on the grid starts came to an end. Hayden’s return marks the start of a new streak, with news emerging that a second US rider will be on the grid at Aragon.
The Teluru JiR Team hinted on their Twitter account that they will have an American rider replacing the injured Tetsuta Nagashima at Aragon. They then went on to thank Palmeto Kawasaki, who run the Kawasaki team in the Spanish CEV Superbike championship. Palmeto have three riders: The Venezuelan Robertino Pietri, the Spaniard Lucas De Ulacia, and the American Kenny Noyes.
That suggests that Noyes will be back in action on a Moto2 machine, after an absence of three years. Noyes is currently involved in close, three-way battle for the championship in the CEV, but the dates of that series do not clash with the MotoGP calendar.
Whether that means that Noyes will be replacing Nagashima for the rest of the season remains to be seen, though the fact that he spent 2 years in the class, scoring a pole position in the process, makes him an obvious choice.
Photo: © 2014 Scott Jones / Photo.GP – All Rights Reserved
This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.
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