Stoner to miss Brno MotoGP

With his return to racing unconfirmed ahead of the surgery, it's been speculated that Stoner could also miss another two or three rounds after Brno, and potentially his "farewell" local ride at the AirAsia Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in October.

On the advice of doctors, Stoner left Brno Thursday evening for Australia, with surgery on the right ankle scheduled for early next week. If he rode this weekend, Stoner reportedly risked permanent damage to the ligaments and bones already damaged at Indianoplis.

In a press conference held late Thursday, Stoner said he currently has no idea what the recovery time may be once he has had the surgery, but has conceded that any chance of defending his championship is now gone.

"They had to send the disc [with the scans], and they viewed them all day today and decided the worst thing to do would be to keep going in it, to keep riding with it," Stoner said. "And the best thing to do would be to get back and have surgery as soon as possible, so that gives us the quickest recovery rate before the end of the season, and hopefully we can get back.

"It was always feeling like it was going to be this decision anyway. I was recommended by everyone not to race on Sunday in Indianapolis, so I didn't expect the situation to be better here. It's definitely disappointing; it's not what we wanted, especially in my last season. We're coming into a few left hand circuits, and circuits that I prefer to be honest.

"In the later part of the season you never know what could have happened, but we'll keep pushing. I don't regret it [racing at Indianapolis]. I've never really followed people's orders with things like that in the past. But now, if another accident was to happen it would be huge damage. It's just frustrating to thing what we could have done without this injury."

Stoner stated that he hopes to be back for Philip Island, yet said that nothing could be confirmed until the surgery has taken place: "I believe I can be back before Phillip Island. It really does depend on the surgery, how they [the doctors] see it. Hopefully they can get me back on track as soon as possible and at least I'll get a few races before the end of the season. Again, it might not depend on what the doctors say."

"I've lost championships before, so we know what it's like," Stoner said of his championship chances. "We're pretty much out of it, even going into this weekend. But now that we're not competing it's done and dusted. Very frustrating, but life goes on."

Images: motogp.com