HAYDEN INJURED IN TRAINING ACCIDENT Nicky Hayden’s winter vacation was marred on Tuesday, December 27, when he broke his left scapula and fractured two ribs while training near his home in Owensboro, Kentucky. Hayden was training at a private indoor flat track facility, riding a motorcycle for the first time since breaking his scaphoid at the Valencia Grand Prix on November 6. He underwent an X-ray and CAT scan on the same day he was injured, and he has since undergone an MRI. At the moment, there are no plans for surgery, but Hayden will have the scapula reassessed next week by Dr. Arthur Ting in Fremont, California, to see how his fracture is progressing. According to the healing process, the next few weeks will determine whether Hayden will take part in the first winter test session of 2012, which will begin on January 31 in Sepang, Malaysia. “Obviously, injuries are never good,” Hayden said, “but it’s part of motorcycle racing. Just like at Valencia, it was kind of a freak accident. I was starting to train again, like I normally do during the winter, at a private track near my house. I came up behind another rider, and he went to move out of the way. I wasn’t going that fast, but he clipped my front wheel and I went down and landed pretty hard on my left shoulder, and that was it. It’s disappointing, but there’s nothing to do about it but heal quickly. Anyway, this doesn’t change my expectations for 2012 which, fortunately, is just around the corner.”