Injured Hayden to miss Czech GP

The 2006 champion injured his right calcaneus (heel area) when he landed heavily from a jump in a Supermoto event and has been advised to rest the foot until the San Marino Grand Prix on August 31.

"The injury is to a weight-bearing part of the foot and the doctors say that using too much pressure on the pegs could very easily give me some big problems," said Hayden.

"I went to Dr Arthur Ting in California, who knows the sport very well, and he feels it would be quite risky to ride. He and the other specialists say that if I rode this week I might have to fight the injury for the rest of the year."

Hayden says it was a tough decision to sit out Brno but wants to focus on a good end to the year when he returns.

"As hard a decision as it is, and as bad as I feel about it, I think I'm better off staying home doing rehab and physio," he added. "Then I can come back fit at Misano and try to finish the season strongly.

"There have been a lot of guys this year trying to ride at less than 100 per cent who have actually made their problems worse.

"I certainly feel bad about it for my team and I apologise. I had their permission to do the Supermoto thing. I just wanted to do some riding during the break, have some fun, and I thought that maybe it'd give me a little spark for the rest of the season, but it backfired on me."