Hopkins posted this photo...
Hopkins posted this photo on his Twitter account of his bandage hand after the surgery to amputate the tip of his ring finger.
After problems with the ring finger injured back in August of last year in a crash during practice for a wildcard ride at the Brno MotoGP continued to hound him, American John Hopkins had to make the decision to amputate a portion of the finger earlier this week. The finger was momentarily caught under the bike when he crashed during a wet practice session at the Czech Republic circuit, causing Hopkins to pull out of the event and head home for surgery. Already embroiled in a battle for the British Superbike Championship, the California native grit his teeth and continued to race despite the pain, continuing to score wins and podiums. The pain soon became unbearable however, and he flew back to the U.S. before the Silverstone BSB round to have more surgery to insert micro-plates to help stabilize the knuckle.
It initially improved enough for Hopkins to score a sensational double victory at the Donington Park BSB round, the first of the three-race “Final Showdown” portion of the BSB championship. The American eventually came up 0.006 seconds short in the final race, after an electrical problem in the first leg caused him to work from dead last to 12th, forcing a winner-take-all last race with eventual title winner Tommy Hill.
Hopkins stunned the World...
Hopkins stunned the World Superbike regulars by qualifying on pole at the Silverstone UK round of the WSBK championship, and now the American will be contesting the series full-time with the Crescent Suzuki team.
Hopkins was then scheduled to have another MotoGP wildcard ride at Sepang, but he once again had to pull out when it was discovered that infection had set in to the injured finger. He then had to undergo a rigorous schedule of antibiotic treatments to keep the infection from getting worse, but after a few weeks it seemed Hopkins might finally be out of woods with regards to complications with the troublesome digit. Unfortunately the lingering issues with the healing process forced him to make the difficult decision when he visited his surgeon to gauge the progress.
"I went to see my doctor for a progress report and the news was not great,” said Hopkins. “It's never good news when you have to lose a body part, but this was the best scenario all round because otherwise the situation could've dragged on for some time, with not necessarily a better result in the end.
"Apart from the actual pain of the surgery, I must say that it's feeling better already. I now have about 10 days when I cannot do any physio, but then I can start again. This is a bit of a setback, but really not too bad because I have been training and getting fit for some time now, so my base level is very good. I'll be able to train fully again soon and be able to get on a bike in three weeks, so I'm sure I'll be ok for our first tests in Australia.” Hopkins will be contesting the World Superbike Championship with the Crescent Suzuki team he was part of in the British Superbike series, which has now moved to the WSBK series full-time.
"I know the bike well and I've raced at Phillip Island before, so at least I will not be starting from scratch,” continued Hopkins. “Our GSX-R1000 has a very good base setting and I am confident that we're not going to be struggling at the start. The level of competition is tough for sure, but I think we're going to be competitive right from the start."