Just a few days before he was to make his 2017 race debut, Tommy Searle has injured his hand when he clipped a post. The Kawasaki MXGP star injured his knee in December and has spent the past six months recovering.

He’s been testing and riding for around a month now. He was due to make his 2017 race debut at Hawkstone Park in the MX Masters this weekend, then race Desertmartin next weekend in the British championship before going back to GPs in Italy the following week.

Searle said: “I have been feeling really good on the bike in recent weeks and was more than ready to get back racing but whilst practicing Thursday I clipped a post without crashing which has caused same damage to my hand and set my return back a couple of weeks. I feel so motivated to get back on the start line and can not wait to to back racing! Massive thanks to everyone for the support.”