With just one more round left in the 2011 British Superbike Championship, John Hopkins has undergone more surgery, again having his hand operated on for injuries he sustained after crashing at the Czech GP back in August. The surgery comes as a surprise as the BSB season is so close to completion, along with the fact that Hopkins’ dominate wins at Donington Park shoved him to the front of the points leader board in the Championship standings.
“There was a lot of pain in my fingers at Donington Park and I knew it wasn’t right and in fact I was very worried I’d aggravated the injury. So I rushed back to see my surgeon on the Monday,” explained Hopper. “The X-Rays showed that my middle finger wasn’t locating properly in the second knuckle. Fortunately the bone area that had previously been crushed was now nicely healed and so my surgeon was able to put in screws and plates so as to stabilize the finger.”
Continuing, the Anglo-American rider explained, “I could feel straight away that the finger was much stronger and it’s improved every day since. I’m now very confident that I’ll be able to ride at near-enough 100% at Silverstone next weekend.” Surely good news for fans following him in BSB, news of Hopkins’ improvement and recovery also bode well for the former-MotoGP rider’s hopes for entering back into the premier class.
Making no secret of the fact that he wants to ride in the three MotoGP rounds that follow the British Superbike Championship’s conclusion, Hopkins had previously been linked to several one-off offers in MotoGP with teams short on riders, though Hopper declined all those offers. With there being no secret regarding the links between the Samsung Crescent Racing BSB team and the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP effort, Hopkins has remained true to his commitments with the British team, despite temptation from elsewhere.
There is certainly a lot of interesting opportunities budding for Hopper as rebounds from his fall from grace in this hero-story archetype. We imagine that Hopkin’s is taking one thing at a time, with a firm eye on BSB’s last stop of the year at Silverstone — the same venue where he set a track record during his World Superbike wild card.
Source: Suzuki Racing/Rizla Suzuki
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