After considering himself lucky to come out of Daytona with a second in 600cc Supersport and a 10th in Superbike when he could have easily had two DNFs, Nicky Hayden flew to California to have Dr. Arthur Ting perform surgery on his left wrist.

During winter testing training, Hayden, 19, realized that a new pain in his wrist was getting worse. X-rays discovered nothing, but an MRI showed a fractured scaphoid bone in Hayden’s left wrist. Hayden rode through the pain at Daytona with his wrist taped by sports trainer Dean Miller.

On Monday morning, March 12, Hayden flew to Ting’s California clinic and underwent another MRI, which revealed that Hayden’s fracture had gotten worse. “The bone was cracked all of the way across,” said Hayden on Friday, March 16.

On Tuesday, March 13, Hayden was put under the knife for the first time in his life and woke with a cast up to his elbow. “They said ideally they would like to have it in a cast for six weeks,” said Hayden in a phone interview from his Owensboro, Kentucky home. “But I don’t think that’s gonna work. I’m going back in two weeks to get it checked out and see how it’s doing. I’ll know more then.”

Hayden believes that he will be healed and strong enough for the next AMA Superbike round, scheduled for Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California on May 4-6.