"Hopper" was operated on in San Francisco, California on Monday 29th July by renowned American Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting.

The 45-minute operation on his left hand involved the insertion of three permanent screws into the metacarpal bone of the middle finger. The screws will assist the metacarpal bone in knitting back together. (The metacarpal bones extend from the wrist to the knuckles of each finger.)

A three week recovery time is needed following this surgery and John will spend these weeks at home in Ramona, California. John plans to return to a light aerobic training program by the end of this week and will build up his fitness schedule prior to the Czech GP.

"After the crash in Sachsenring, I went to see a Surgeon that Red Bull recommend for me in Innsbruck in Austria. After some x-rays on the Wednesday, he told me the hand would definitely need surgery to heal correctly. I wanted to get the surgery done in the US, I think that's in my best interest so I planned to come home to the States and see Dr. Ting.

"The X-rays showed that my knuckle was completely busted in half and shoved back into my hand by 4mm. The bone was totally misplaced making my middle finger shorter than it should be by 4mm.

"So I came to Dr. Ting's clinic in San Francisco for the operation.

"Now, it's the second day after the surgery and my hand is in a fibreglass-moulded split to support the bone. I have to keep it solid like this and not mess around with it for 10 days to give the bone time to knit together. I've had the dressing changed again today and I've got just a small incision in the top of the hand and the Dr. tells me its healing up nicely and on schedule.

"I'm only on light painkillers at the moment and the pain has dropped dramatically since yesterday.

"I'm flying home to Ramona, California tonight so I'll spend my time at home training and getting a few things sorted with my house. I'm still building the second story so I can use the time to get that advanced."

"If there is one good thing about all of this, the timing was perfect. I've got time to heal so I'm 100% for Brno. I am really looking forward to Brno, I like everything about that circuit, the flowing track, surrounded by the trees, it's unbelievable and really suits my riding style. So I'll be training hard as soon as I can so I can be 100% fit for that."