Shane Byrne undergoes surgery on broken hand
Four-time BSB champion high-sides and breaks hand during testing in Almeria
FOUR-TIME British Superbike champion Shane 'Shakey' Byrne has undergone surgery in Spain after a 'massive' high-side left him with a broken left hand during yesterday's test at Almeria.
Byrne high-sided in the final session of the day at the circuit's fast turn six.
With no x-ray facilities at the circuit, the PBM Kawasaki rider was transferred to hospital for treatment.
He posted a picture on Twitter showing his swollen hand, with the message: 'Sorry to say I’ve had a MASSIVE high side today whilst testing & broken my hand, off for an op very shortly!!'
He later wrote on his blog that a doctor had said he'd need a month to recover, meaning he may just have enough time before the first BSB round of the year in April.
Byrne wrote: 'I think it's pretty fair to say that most of you will have already read about what happened in Almeria yesterday. The final session of the day, doing a bit of a longer consistent lap time run, I had a big off-throttle high-side, very similar to the one I had back at Silverstone in 2013.
'Unfortunately it was a big one and even more unfortunately I've broken my left hand which resulted in an operation last night to fix it. One of my knuckles disappeared down into my hand and broke it. The good news is though, as there's no point in dwelling on it, I was operated on and with some screws and plates it's all been put back together so I'm already on the mend.
'So then to the bad news, today I had quite a lot of stuff to get through in order to box off our 2014 ideas. I got literally 95% through all of that hence the steady-ish lap times, and then I went and flicked myself, so now all my 2015 work is on the back burner.
'The doctor has said I need a month to heal up and be right which takes me exactly to the first round, but I'm planning on heading back to the UK now to jump in a hyperbaric chamber and get the bones lasered, so I'm hoping that'll increase the healing time considerably.
'I've supposedly got to keep this cast on for two to three weeks, but I'll see what my guy in the UK says and do absolutely everything I possibly can to be ready for the Donington Park test in three weeks. Fingers (well not on my left hand) crossed guys and girls.'
Byrne will now be heading back to the UK to try to get back to fitness with the aid of a hyperbaric chamber.
