Keith Farmer crashed during qualifying at Donington Park as he made his competitive return from a long injury lay-off

Luckless Keith Farmer has admitted he could miss the rest of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship through injury.

The Buildbase Suzuki rider suffered a shoulder injury in qualifying at Donington Park for the opening round of the 2020 series at the beginning of the month, which was delayed by four months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Farmer, who was making his racing comeback a year after he fractured both legs in a crash in qualifying at Knockhill in Scotland, is due to undergo surgery on Saturday.

The four-time British champion has been advised that a 12-week recovery period will be needed, which would rule the Co Tyrone man out for the remainder of the campaign.

Farmer told the News Letter:

“I’m booked in for an operation on Saturday, which is a day procedure. I’ve got a phase three tear of the ligament in my shoulder, so the collarbone is pretty much separated from the shoulder.

“It’s one of those things that I could probably get away with if I wasn’t a sportsman, but because of obviously what I do, I need the operation. We’ll have to see how it goes but I’m being seen by a top surgeon who has done operations for Sylvain Guintoli, Shane Byrne and Michael Dunlop,” he added.

“With the season being so short, it’s not worth taking the risk of not getting it done now and then we can try and get fit and be completely 100 per-cent fit and ready for next season more than anything.

“The surgeon has advised me to rest for 12 weeks but if I did wait that long, I wouldn’t get any more rounds done this season. I’ll just wait until after the operation and see how it is. I’ve no real set targets in terms of when I could come back, but if I was able to return for the final two rounds, then that would be nice, just to get a couple of races under my belt.”

Farmer is trying to stay positive following his latest injury setback, which may have put his racing return on hold until 2021. The 33-year-old, who won the Superstock 1000 title in 2018 for the second time, last raced at Brands Hatch in June 2019 for the Tyco BMW team prior to his Knockhill crash.

“I waited 14 months to ride a bike and then I didn’t even get to the first race,” Farmer said.

“It was more frustrating than anything because I’d just got a good feeling for the bike at Donington and it was beginning to feel like mine, but it’s one of those things.”

Should Farmer be forced to miss the rest of the truncated BSB season, the Clogher man, who is based in England, is hopeful he will have the chance to remain with Stuart and Steve Hicken’s Buildbase Suzuki team next season.

“There is nothing set in stone for next season but we’ve had a kind of verbal agreement that we will stay with each other, and I think a lot of people will do the same next year,” he said.

“The season is so short that it’s difficult to get a true reading of where everyone is and I don’t think there will be too many changes next year unless a rider and team has a major falling out.

“I can’t fault the team because when the accident happened, they were just more concerned for me more than anything. They really looked after me and it’s a proper family-based team, which is absolutely mega.

“They have the belief in me and I’ve no interest in going anywhere else, so once I finally get the show on the road then I think we can have a decent run together.”

Gino Rea will deputise for Farmer this weekend as round two takes place at Snetterton, with the 30-year-old joining Kyle Ryde in the team.

Carrickfergus man Glenn Irwin leads the championship by 10 points from his brother and Honda Racing team-mate Andrew, who won two races at Donington.