‘It’s not quite what I had planned’ - Mackenzie

Arriving at a 100mph plus corner and then discovering you have no brakes is not fun as Taz Mackenzie discovered when testing at the Cartagena circuit last week.

The British Superbike Champion suffered a severe fracture of the right tibia plus a dislocated right shoulder and is now recovering in Spain.

Father Niall Mackenzie told Bikesportnews: ”He has been attended to by Dr Xavier Mir and his team at the Dexeus University in Barcelona, the best you can get, and has had surgery to pin the tibia. He is now having physio and will not be back in England until next month. The shoulder was fairly straight forward.“

Calmly he added: ”These things happen although we are not quite sure exactly what went wrong. Taz thought he would get some early training and he and Taylor went down in the van. It will take a little while to recover but there are eight weeks to the start of the season.”

The McAMS Yamaha rider took to social media on Monday night to update his fans, with the 26-year-old showing off his new wheels (chair) as he left hospital.

“It’s not quite what I had planned for five weeks in Spain but we move - with the assistance of a wheel chair and Taylor,” Mackenzie wrote. “Really fortunate to know some amazing people that helped look after me and Taylor and get the wheels in motion (pun intended) with an operation and physio so quickly! Thanks for all of the nice messages.”