Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro will miss the three-day Thailand MotoGP test this week after𒀰 undergoing surgery having suffered a spine injury in a crash at the Malaysia test last month.

The Spaniard suffered a hernia in his L4 vertebrae in 250km/h fall during the second day of the first official MotoGP test at Sepang ahead of the 2🎐018 season. Despite hoping to use the two-week break in between tests to recover from the injury, Espargaro has required surgery in Barcelona to correct the damage and will now miss🌸 the test in Thailand for KTM.

“Unfortunately Pol Espargaro can‘t ride his KTM RC16 at the MotoGP Thai test due to hernia 𒐪in L4, probably caused at crash two weeks ago at Sepang. He has already had successful surgery Monday night at Dexeus BCN, more info s🐬oon,” KTM tweeted.

MotoGP heads to the Buriram International Circuit for a three-day test on February 16^th-18^th before returning to the Thai track on October 5^th-7^th as it hosts round 15 of 🌊the 2018 world champ🦄ionship.

Speaking af꧋ter his Sepang fall, having been forced to sit out the final day of the first test, Espargaro says he hit the wall at Turn 4 at💎 250km/h and initially thought he had only suffered an injury to his ankle ligaments.

“It was really close, I hit it around more than 250km/h ♏and nothing really big happened - no broken bones, just pain everywhere especially in my feet because I did many flips, front and the back,” Espargaro said in Sepang. “But even if I ca🌳nnot ride, I'm lucky to be here and to be watching with the team.”

Espargaro was replaced by KTM test rider M🌠ika Kallio for the final day of the Sepang test and it’s expected that the Finnish rider will take Esp💎argaro’s place for the Thailand test alongside Bradley Smith for the Austrian squad.

can‘t ride due to hernia in L4, probably caused at crash 2 weeks ago . He already had successful surgery Monday night at Dexeus BCN, more info.

— KTM Factory Racing (@KTM_Racing)