Jonathan Rea explains how bike did “damage”, why “they can’t operate now”

Jonathan Rea has spoken publicly for the first time since his testing crash at Phillip Island on 17 February, and says he is “gutted” with the resulting injury.

Rea high-sided at turn two during Monday morning’s official testing session at the Australian circuit as he was preparing for this weekend’s opening round of the 2025 World Superbike Championship.

The crash saw Rea landed on by his bike after the initial fall, and the Northern Irish rider suffered multiple fractures in his left foot as a result.

Consequently, Rea was forced to miss the second and final day of the test, and was ruled out of the race this weekend, too; the six-time World Champion set to fly back to the UK this week to undergo surgery, as mentioned by Pata Yamaha team principal Paul Denning.

“Honestly it was going so well, no issues, good plan, started fast – top four or five,” Rea told WorldSBK.com on Tuesday (18 February).

Detailing the crash, he added: “I was working through it and was just about to put my first fresh set of tyres in for the last 20 minutes and on my first flying lap I just lost the rear, it gripped, traction control picked it up abruptly and kicked me up, then I landed on the bike and it threw me over.

“That was fine, I landed fine, but the bike was cartwheeling and landed right on my foot and did quite a bit of damage.”

Rea explained that the swelling in his foot is preventing a more immediate surgery, and said he was disappointed with the injury additionally because he feels that he and Yamaha had made progress over the winter.

“They can't operate right now as there is massive swelling, so I’m getting a few different opinions from different consultants, asking about surgery, not surgery, a timeframe, so I don't know much right now.

“We made a small step forward on the bike. I'm just gutted. it doesn’t take much in racing to just keep that snowball effect rolling.

“We had a good winter test; it’s undone with that. I just have to take my medicine with this one and come back stronger.”