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Anthony Gobert sustained a clean fracture of his right fibula, a few inches above his foot, in his crash during Superbike qualifying at Road Atlanta on Friday. Gobert is scheduled to fly back to California Saturday and seek further evaluation by Dr. Arthur Ting on Monday.

Yamaha Team Manager/Crew Chief Tom Halverson said Saturday that Gobert was treated and released from Northeast Georgia Medical Center very quickly Friday evening with a plaster half-cast around the back portion of his leg to keep his foot immobilized. Meanwhile, Gobert’s X-rays were overnighted to Dr. Ting.

“The doctors there said that the break is close enough together that it could heal naturally and that it would be tricky to get to anyway because it is surrounded by muscle,” said Halverson.

Halverson said of Gobert, “He said he knew he was going in feet-first. So he was trying to steer himself and turn around so he would hit on his side. He didn’t get turned in time and his right foot got trapped under him when he hit.

“He said he felt some impact with the Air Fence, but he saw the bike hit first. He thinks the bike must have deflated it some already because he definitely felt that he hit the haybales pretty hard. He said he knew it was broken right after the impact.”

When asked if Yamaha was considering putting Damon Buckmaster on Gobert’s YZF-R7 Superbike, Halverson said, “We thought about that because we know that Damon is fully capable of riding the bike, but that would be putting two other Championships (Supersport and Formula Xtreme) in danger.”