HM Plant Honda ace Steve Plater crashed heavily during practice for the Superbike race at the NW200 meeting in Northern Ireland on Thursday.

He went into the session on provisional pole but lost the front of his HM Plant Honda Fireblade at Quarry Hill and slid heavily into the safety fencing.

After initial treatment and assessment by the medics on the course the Woodhall Spa rider was taken to Coleraine hospital where it was confirmed he had broken both bones in his lower left arm and would need an operation to plate the injury.

He was transferred to the Londonderry Orthopaedic Unit where he underwent the procedure on Friday afternoon.

Steve is fortunate to have come away from his high speed crash with relatively minor injuries and this is testament to the FIM approved safety bales which absorbed the majority of the impact, the quality of Steve’s leathers and helmet and also his quick thinking, as when he knew he was sliding towards the kerb he picked his legs up to minimise any further injury.

Steve remembers the whole accident and, although in pain, was talking to paramedics and HM Plant Honda’s team manager, Harvey Beltran, before being taken to hospital by ambulance.

Plater was very disappointed to miss the North West 200 races in which he was riding in five different classes, two Superbike and the Superstock races for HM Plant Honda and the two Supersport events for Padgett’s Honda and relayed his thanks to everyone for all their good wishes from his hospital bed on Friday.

“I’m gutted to not be able to race tomorrow but I’m very thankful the operation seems to have gone well. I can’t feel my fingers at the moment but we’re hopeful that just a temporary thing and that the feeling will start to come back once the swelling starts to go down. I’ve been overwhelmed by all the well-wishes via text, phone calls and email and can’t thank everyone enough for their kind words and support, or thank all the medical staff enough, both at the hospital and the trackside, who have played a part in helping me feel more comfortable since Thursday evening.

“From here I just want to focus on making sure my arm has the chance to completely recover but I’m also determined to be back on my Honda Fireblade as soon as possible to be able to try and protect my current lead in the British Superstock Championship. Being able to compete at the TT is highly unlikely and I’m also gutted about that too, but at the moment I’ll take each day as it comes and will have to settle, annoyingly, for watching the North West 200 races from the live BBC feed on my laptop!”

Plater will miss the weekend’s racing at his local track of Cadwell Park but there is now a gap in the British Superbike calendar to allow for the TT races. The next round of the series will be on June 21st at Silverstone where the Superstock riders will have two races as support to the British round of MotoGP.