Injury forces Toseland to retire

Two-time World Superbike champion James Toseland says he has put his own safety first after being forced to retire from racing by a wrist injury.

The Doncaster-born rider has been troubled by the problem since a testing crash in Spain in March, and a fall in the most recent round of the series at the Nurburgring prompted him to return to his consultant, leading to yesterday’s decision to retire at the age of 30.

And Toseland says the nature of the injury would have made it too dangerous for him to consider returning to the track.

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Writing on his personal website, he said: “As you all know, I’ve had a tough time since injuring my right wrist during a testing crash at Aragon in Spain earlier this year.

“At the time of first seeing my consultant, he warned that the damage to my wrist could be career-threatening, but we both committed to doing everything we could to ensure that I could continue racing.

“Having struggled through a couple of races and then crashing out in the terrible conditions at Nurburgring in Germany, I went back to see the consultant, Mike Hayton, this week and the diagnosis was the worst I could have prepared myself for.

“The easiest way to explain it is that I don’t have enough range of movement in my wrist to race professionally and no amount of physiotherapy is going to improve that. This all led to the verdict was that it’s no longer safe for me to continue a career in motorcycle racing.

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“I have to put the safety of the other riders on track first, as well as thinking about my own safety. Knowing that I will never again be fully fit to race at the highest level, it’s also unfair for me to occupy a great seat in WSBK that a young, talented rider who is fully fit could take better advantage of.’’

The decision brings an end a career which saw him win Superbike World Championship crowns with Ducati (2004) and Honda (2007).