Hometown hero Leon Haslam will race with one broken and two cracked ribs at this weekend’s Donington World Superbike round after a crash at Imola.

But the gritty Derbyshire man, who lives just around the corner from the track, says it shouldn’t worry him too much as ribs aren’t something required to race.

“I’ve broken one rib and cracked two others, so it’s not ideal. I can’t cough, sneeze, laugh, nothing but you don’t use your ribs on the bike, so I am confident it shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” said Haslam speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“The Aprilia goes well at Donington, it’s my home circuit so I am confident we should be ok. I have some engine and electronic upgrades coming too, so that will help. The last couple of tracks were really bogey tracks with the fast changes of direction. This weekend will be much better suited to us.

“Although the bike does work better with hot track temperatures, we will manage with colder as Max Biaggi has just done three days’ testing at Mugello and I think some answers have come out of that.”