Kawasaki WSBK: Vermeulen Healing Well

2011 World Superbike

For the first time since July, World Superbike rider Chris Vermeulen was given the clear from Doctors to put weight on his injured right leg Tuesday.

This is just another step in recovery for the Kawasaki Racing Team Ninja ZX-10R rider, who had knee surgery during the middle of the 2010 World Superbike season.

The surgery repaired cartilage and ligament damage to his right knee, which was injured when he crashed his Kawasaki Ninja at Phillip Island. The Australian Vermeulen has been on crutches since the operation.

With recovery going as planned, Vermeulen is hoping to participate in the Kawasaki World Superbike Sepang tests in mid January, but nothing has been confirmed.

Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki World Superbike ) says: "I am going well. I started walking earlier this week and everything is going to plan. It is not easy, as I can do five or ten minutes of walking around, then I have to sit down for a while. I still have lots of physio exercises to do every day."

"I can swim, ride a bicycle, surf-ski in the ocean. I am in discussion with Mr Yoda-san from Kawasaki about a comeback at Sepang. For sure I will be right to ride, but at what level I can ride we do not know yet."

"If I am not at a level that is competitive we are discussion whether it is worth me coming back straight away or not. I would like to ride but Mr Yoda has yet to decide."

Once Vermeulen was cleared from Doctors to put weight on his leg, he took his first two-wheel ride since July, although far from his Kawasaki ZX-10R.

Chris Vermeulen says: "I had my first ride on a motorbike today, on a little flat track circuit at my house, which has got a few left and right corners around it. Not motocross or anything like that, just a flat dirt track."

"I was pretty steady but it was good to get back on a bike. I only rode for about 20 minutes but I hope to ride every couple of days from now on. It wasn’t actually that weird a feeling, but that was the first time I had ridden any motorbike since the Brno World Sueprbike round."

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