Todd Waters’ return to the FIM Motocross World Championship unfortunately did not last long, as the Australian sustained a broken collarbone in qualifying on Saturday at the MXGP of Latvia. The team announced today that he underwent successful surgery in Riga to stabilize his right collarbone. The operation lasted two hours and Waters had a metal plate and eight screws inserted to fix the injury.
Waters will return to the Netherlands to begin his recovery. No timetable has been announced on a return.
“Obviously I’m really disappointed with how the weekend went, especially as I felt I was finally getting rid of nerves and showing some speed,” he said in a statement. “It’s a pity, but we had the operation and we’re now ready to head back to Holland. My girlfriend is flying from Australia and she’s a physiotherapist, so towards the end of the week we’ll start with the rehab programme. It’s the collarbone, so it’s not the end of the world; it has happened to me before and we have a strong programme in place to get back to racing as soon as possible. The team has been so supportive all along as they came to visit more than once to make sure everything was under control. This is nice: it makes me feel at home and welcome in the Honda family. I feel privileged and even more motivated to get back and do well.”
Waters, who was expected to race Lucas Oil Pro Motocross as a privateer, joined the team in early May as a fill in for the injured Brian Bogers. The Grand Prix of Latvia was his first race in MXGP since 2015.
