Steve Plater – HM Plant Honda 2010

The current leader of the British Superstock championship Steve Plater, returned to hospital this week to undergo further tests following his accident at the practice session for the North West 200 in May.

The 41-year-old, was thought to have got off lightly with just a broken arm in the incident which saw him flying into the wall at Quarry Hill.  Steve lost the front end of his HM Plant Honda and ploughed into the wall at speed, he was attended to immediately by marshals and medics at the site and transferred to Coleraine hospital where he underwent a full medical examination.

It was thought that his head, main body and legs were fine and that he had suffered two clean breaks to the ulna and radius bones of his left arm.  The Englishman underwent surgery to have the bones pinned and plated but after complaining of further pain in his chest and shoulder he had further surgery to relieve the pressure on nerves to the arm.

It has now been discovered that Steve has also suffered damage to his neck and a break between the sixth and seventh vertebrae will need a further operation.

The Honda rider was operated on last week at a specialist hospital where a bone graft taken from his pelvis was used to realign and plate the vertebrae at the front before a second operation took place to realign the vertebrae from the back.

The operation is said to have gone well and Steve is reportedly getting back to form, he is expected to make a full recovery but will not be taking part in this years TT.