MX2 World Champion Jeffrey Herlings in action.
Three-time MX2 World Champion Jeffrey Herlings will launch the new MXGP season in Qatar this week despite an injury scare, details showed yesterday.
The 24-year-old Dutchman - who will ride for the Red Bull KTM Factory Team - is expected to overcome an injury scare in the lead up to the new season that opens at Losail International Circuit later this week.
Herlings was injured in a crash last week and tests revealed that he had a fractured fourth metacarpus, one of the five bones between the wrist and the fingers. He had successful surgery yesterday in Belgium and will wear a protective cast for one week, details said.
Doctors have told Herlings that he should be fit to ride, free of pain, at the opening round of the world championship.
The Dutch rider, a three times world champion in MX2, joins the MXGP premier class this season.
Herlings has three world titles with his first win coming in 2012.
Pauls Jonass of Latvia, who was vice world champion in MX2 in 2015, suffered what doctors described as a light concussion during a crash.
They confirmed the rider should take rest for 4-5 days, and the medical examinations he has had so far are satisfactory.
Jonass is expected to be also fit to ride in the opening round of MX2. Jonass has now had four days of rest and has been declared fit to race.
For the 2017 season, the Red Bull KTM Factory Team will field Tony Cairoli, Glenn Coldenhoff and Herlings in the MXGP class, and Pauls Jonass and Spanish teenager Jorge Prado will contest MX2.
