virgivaughn: Nicky Hayden reveals Aragon fracture

Nicky Hayden looks to have suffered another right hand fracture as a result of his scary Aragon MotoGP accident.

The factory Ducati star speared off-track through the fast final turn at the end of lap two of the race.

Unable to slow down sufficiently in the run-off area, the American then slammed into an advertising board. The force of the impact launched Hayden over the top of the tyre barrier and onto an access road.

Hayden previously suffered fractures to the second and third metacarpal on the same hand during his huge Indianapolis qualifying accident, in mid-August, which also forced him to miss Brno.

"I thought I had escaped unscathed from the crash at Aragon, but unfortunately it looks like I picked up another injury," said Hayden in the run-up to this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.

"When I got home, my right hand was bothering me a bit, so I went for an X-ray and CT scan, and it turns out I have a fracture in my right radius.

"It's definitely not the best situation, but as it's not too painful and I have pretty good grip strength, I'm hopeful that it won't cause too many problems this weekend.

"Racing's full of ups and downs. We'll try to ride this one out and hopefully get a decent result in Japan to get a little momentum going and get some confidence back."

Unfortunately for Hayden, Motegi is the first of three races in successive weekends.