Nicky Hayden is gutted that an injury is forcing him to miss his home race, the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix, this coming weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), but the American star says his right wrist is recovering well and he is confident he will return to action on his Drive M7 Aspar Honda before the end of the 2014 season.

“Of course you hate to miss your home race, or races in general, but this is the situation,” Hayden told the media Thursday at IMS. “I’ve struggled a lot this season and really the last two years with my wrist. It got to the point where after consulting with many doctors the only choice I really had was to get rid of the main bones that [were] causing the trouble. So we took three bones out of the wrist. Now [I’ll] just wait to recover and see how much strength and range of motion I can get back.

“The doctor was really happy with the surgery, and I actually just spoke here with another doctor and it seems to go very good. So actually I’m pretty happy and pretty excited. I’m already in a lot less pain than I have been all season, so that’s really positive.”

Asked when he might return to racing, Hayden said, “I’m not sure yet. This week I go back to the doctor. It’s only been three weeks yesterday since the operation. So I’ll go back to the doctor this week and try to know a little bit more [about] when I’ll be back. I’ll definitely be back this season.”

In the meantime, Hayden is planning to spend time with fans at IMS, to do some TV commentary work and to help promote his father Earl’s new book, The First Family of Racing. And if there was any question as to how much support Hayden has from his Drive M7 Aspar Team, that was answered when his entire team came up to IMS’s media center Thursday afternoon to attend the official launch of Earl Hayden’s new book, to take photos with Nicky Hayden and his family, and to have Earl Hayden and the Hayden family sign their books.