Bradley Smith will be fit to ride in the Catalan Grand Prix next week following his crash at Mugello, although the British rider will undergo a second examination after the race in Barcelona to assess the full extent of his wrist injury.

The Tech 3 rider crashed during second practice for the Italian Grand Prix last Friday, with his left hand caught under the sliding bike.

Smith battled on to a ninth place finish in Mugello but post-race scans revealed that the 22-year-old had broken his left scaphoid.

“The good news is I will be fit to ride again at the next round at Barcelona,” Smith told motogp.com on Tuesday, having visited the Ospedale di San Marino clinic.

“The bad news is I have a cracked bone in the scaphoid of my left wrist and the little finger on my left hand will be permanently bent. The doctors were unable to carry out the planned skin graft operation because the skin was so badly damaged around the little finger, but they are confident it will heal – as will the crack in the wrist.

“Rather than a skin graft, it was decided to replace the extension tendon I damaged with a wire. That will help to keep my finger straight, so it doesn’t keep on collapsing, and will basically do the job of the tendon. The finger has been pulled as tight as possible and the hope now is that the skin naturally heals itself. Now all I can do is wait and see whether the skin can heal naturally and that can be a long process.”