Tough kid

Mind the Gap
hayden's surgery reveals serious damage--from 04!
by dean adams
Friday, December 01, 2006

Reigning MotoGP world champion Nick Hayden underwent surgery on his injured shoulder yesterday at Dr. Art Ting's Northern California clinic. Ostensibly, Hayden's surgery was to repair the damage done in his Estoril MotoGP crash—where he was taken out by his teammate, Dani Pedrosa—but the prep for the surgery revealed even more damage than that caused by the Estoril spill.

"I guess what I'd like to say is that Americans should really be proud of Nicky for the performance he put in at Valencia, because, my God, I was just stunned to see how badly his shoulder was damaged and realize that he raced on this and won the world championship," said Ting's Rehab Specialist, Tuan Nguyen today. "We looked at it and thought, my God, look at that gap!"

Ting's clinic services virtually a who's who in the racing world, and has done so for over 15 years. Previous racing clients include Eddie Lawson, Michael Doohan, Miguel DuHamel and many, many others.

"What we found was that Nicky's broken collarbone from 2004 actually never healed," continued Nguyen. "We did an MRI and then looked at it and there was a gap in the old break in his clavicle. The plate was holding it together, but there was a gap between the bones. We also found rotator cuff damage, a labrum tear, and a bone spur on his clavicle."