WSB: Sykes hopeful of French return

Tom Sykes is hoping to return to action at Magny Cours this weekend after the fireball crash that ruled him out of the last round in Portimao.

A massive crash for Sykes in FP3 at the Portugese circuit resulted in his ZX-10RR erupting into flames and left the Yorkshireman with a severely injured little finger and cracked radius.

However, after going under the knife on the injuries last week, he is now determined to return to action in France this weekend as he looks to strengthen his runner-up spot in the 2017 championship with team-mate Jonathan Rea now almost a cert to take the crown with a 120-point lead.

Sykes is adamant he’d have liked to have tried to ride in Portimao but the strength of the pain-killing injections given to him by the circuit’s medical staff ruled was enough to rule him unfit alone.

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“To be honest I would have liked to have tried to ride and I was not aware at the time but the medication means I cannot ride,” said the 2013 World Champion. “It is a shame because I would probably have taken just some pain killing injections and tried it, especially as the wind has settled down. Physically it would have been easier. So, from that case I was a little bit unlucky with the crash but also very lucky because just by how awkward the crash was it could have been a lot worse.

“I had a successful operation and now we are doing things on the medical side to make it as comfortable as possible for me to ride this weekend. We’ll play it by ear and on Friday we’ll try to build up to the full weekend of racing.” 

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