Wrist injury leaves Lorenzo 'worried'

Jorge Lorenzo arrived for the inaugural Thai MotoGP unsure if he would be fit to race due to a dislocated big toe and compound fracture of the second metatarsal at Aragon.

The triple MotoGP champion got a definitive answer of the worst kind when a technical problem caused a massive Friday highside that not only aggravated those right-foot injuries but caused a hairline fracture to his left wrist.

It is the wrist injury - only discovered late on Friday - that prompted Lorenzo to withdraw from the Buriram round and remains a major concern for the upcoming Japanese Grand Prix, on October 19-21.

"As I told you, the chances to compete here were minimal [after the Friday accident] - even before I had the scan, when I found out that I have a fissure in the end of the radius bone," Lorenzo said.

"So my left wrist is hurting a lot and for sure in my opinion there is no meaning to take more risk, knowing the circumstances, knowing the pain, and I decided not to race.

"I don’t want to miss any grand prix and, as you know, I did whatever it takes to arrive here and try. Obviously, the right foot that was already injured is a little bit more painful, but the main problem now is the wrist.

"If I was fighting for the championship, I would probably make a desperate effort not to lose points here. But knowing my position in the championship, knowing the risk to be bad also in the next races, there is no meaning to try now.

"I would like to believe I will arrive in Japan, for sure not 100%, but maybe 90-95%. But I doubt it because of the wrist.

"I think the other parts of my body that are injured will be 90-95%, but the wrist is the only thing that worries me and not only for this race."

Lorenzo confirmed the wrist injury needs time and that surgery would not help.

"I will have a splint to not move the wrist at all and speed-up the healing. The wrist is a very delicate injury for riding a bike, so I'm very worried because Japan is one of my favourite tracks and I would like to arrive there as fit as possible.

"The plan was to stay here in Thailand and I'll do that [rather than return to Europe]. There is not much I can do but keep the wrist stable and wait for the recovery."

Ducati has admitted some kind of technical fault caused Lorenzo's rear-wheel to lock under braking at turn three, but no further details are being made public.

"I know what happened but I cannot tell you the details... As they told you, there was a technical problem," said Lorenzo.

"Obviously my confidence would be different if yesterday's crash was because I made a mistake. It would be less, because next time on the bike I would be more afraid to enter the corner.

"But if I know it's a technical problem and I know it will not happen again, I don’t have anything to worry about any more, theoretically."

Lorenzo, who has won three races this season and is joining Repsol Honda for 2019, is now 44 points behind team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in the fight for second in the world championship.

Dovizioso will start third on Sunday's grid, behind Honda's world championship leader Marc Marquez and Yamaha's Valentino Rossi.