Johann Zarco will undergo surgery today having sustained a fractured right scaphoid in the huge crash which marred the Austrian MotoGP.

Zarco was initially declared fit after the incident, in which he tumbled through the gravel as a result of contact with Franco Morbidelli at the Red Bull Ring’s fast Turn 2 kink.

However, the Frenchman continued to experience pain from his wrist, with checks made on the day after the race detecting the fracture.

The operation will take place in Italy before Zarco returns to Austria in the hope of racing in the Styrian MotoGP this weekend.

“On Monday I did some tests on my right wrist because it was still in some pain, and I got a little fracture on the scaphoid,” explained the Esponsorama Racing rider.

“I will go to Italy to do the operation on Wednesday morning, with a doctor that has a very good relationship with Ducati. This is the doctor that has operated many times on their riders.

“Then we will come back to Austria, and I will be on Thursday at the track to have a meeting about the big incident that happened on Sunday.”

The ‘meeting’ in question will be with FIM MotoGP stewards, who have announced that they have summoned Zarco and Morbidelli after the horror crash, in which their bikes nearly collected Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi as they careered through Turn 3 at the top of the hill.

Zarco claimed that he did deliberately try to block Morbidelli, although the Petronas SRT Yamaha rider labelled him “half a killer” for his part in the crash.

The injured Ducati pilot’s cause will be helped this weekend by racing at the Red Bull Ring for the second weekend in a row, meaning that running in Friday practice is less important than it otherwise would be.

“If the feeling is OK on the wrist and the medical centre declares me fit to ride I will try and see if I can ride the bike,” added Zarco.

“The advantage this weekend is we already have all the references from the week before, so this is not a big drama if I miss few sessions and I can take one more day to feel if my wrist is OK.

“Now, the main thing is the operation, and after that see if my feeling improves. The team is working on the bike to prepare it, and I know everything will be ready if I come back on the bike.

“Maybe there will be some rain, so also this is a chance because in the rain we have less effort on the bike and for me will be really a good chance with the rain if I can race without much effort on the wrist.”

Practice for the Styrian MotoGP starts this Friday.