America’s top prospect breaks collarbone, but has MotoGP teams chasing his signature

Joe Roberts’ broken collarbone will not impact his hopes of a MotoGP ride for 2025, his manager insists.

America’s best hope to become a future MotoGP rider suffered a big highside at Assen on Friday.

Despite turning up to the garage and emphatically ripping away a ‘get well soon’ message, rules prohibited Roberts from competing in the rest of the round.

But, his manager John Hopkins has revealed that two teams - one more than previously presumed - are in talks for Roberts’ signature.

“We are speaking to a couple of teams right now,” Hopkins told TNT Sports.

“There are a couple of teams interested in Joe.

“One in particular, literally at lunch [on Friday], that went extremely well.”

Those two teams are not expected to be put off by his broken collarbone.

“Injuries are injuries, not something that can be technically be blamed on a rider,” Hopkins said.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect that too much. We are still pushing for that MotoGP ride.

“But most importantly we want him to win the championship.

“He’s focused on the present. I’m focused on his future. We’re doing the best we can. I can’t give any full updates yet. But we’re working hard on it…”

The team most seriously linked to Roberts have been Trackhouse, the Aprilia satellite project whose rebrand this year means they are now US-owned.

Trackhouse are yet to confirm any riders for 2025.

First words out of his mouth were ‘I’m going to f***** race'

Hopkins detailed Roberts’ surgery: “I was with Joe all night and all [Saturday] morning. He had a plate and screws put into his right collarbone.

“It’s such a shame, he was on fire. He’d only done two laps on soft tyres before that.

“It was just a tiny slide. Nothing he hasn’t had before. It just let go a little too much, combined with the wind, it was a bad impact, he came down awkwardly. That’s racing.”

Roberts bullishly hoped to race 48 hours later but rules prevented that ambition.

“Honestly, Joe is a racer,” Hopkins said.

“The first words out of his mouth were ‘I’m going to f***** race tomorrow’.

“Obviously there is a 48-hour ban from general anaesthesia until you can race, which is a good thing.

“But immediately, I said ‘let’s concentrate on Sachsenring’. He has every intention of coming back at Sachsenring, and riding as well as he can.”

The round in Germany next week could realistically see the injured Roberts return to action.

“I think he can be in the points,” Hopkins said.

“He’s got to rest and physio it this week. Get as much strength as he can.

“Luckily it wasn't a bad break. It wasn’t severed, it wasn’t fully displaced. It was fractured bad but not fully displaced.”

Roberts is third in the Moto2 standings after Assen, 23 points behind leader Sergio Garcia.