This just in from Mat Mladin Racing:

Defending American AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin continues to be restricted by the elbow injury that he sustained at the Daytona 200 three weeks ago, as he begins his belated championship defence at this weekend's (April 6-7) double-header (rounds 2 & 3) of the 2002 AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship at the new California Speedway in Fontana, California.

Mladin suffered extensive injuries to his left elbow after crashing from his Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 during qualifying for the opening round of the championship at Daytona.

After the crash, Mladin was operated on where surgeons removed floating bone fragments and cleaned the affected area. Even though he did attempt to ride at Daytona, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to the restricted movement and strength in his left arm.

Mladin took part in a three-day test at Laguna Seca last week that highlighted areas of concern with his elbow. In preparation for this weekend's races he will continue with daily physiotherapy through to the event.

"I'm still having a lot of problems with the back part of the elbow and my tricep muscle has essentially switched off and I can't flex it," said Mladin. "After the operation at Daytona they (the doctors) told me that everything looked OK but I guess when your elbow takes a bad enough pounding to do some small fractures to the elbow and have what has happened it must have done some other damage as well."

"I had a fair few problems with my elbow during the test at Laguna Seca, so we'll have to wait and see how it goes when we get to Fontana," added Mladin. "Essentially we've got a week off from the time we finished the Laguna test to the time we have to ride at Fontana, so hopefully it will be a lot better. At the moment it's probably worse than when we first went to Laguna as it has swollen back up again and is still a bit of a mess."

"The best way to describe the injury is that you don't realise the muscles you use until you don't have them. To be honest I never did think that it was going to be such an issue. Daytona was a problem because I'd just come out of surgery 24 hours or so before the race and it was just a big ball and locked up. The pain at Daytona wasn't the issue, it was the fact that I couldn't hang onto the handlebar and couldn't bend my elbow."

"In the crash at Daytona I didn't think the elbow was such a big deal as I was more concerned about my right heel and I thought I'd broken my ankle. The heel is still a problem and is a struggle to walk properly. It doesn't bother me on the bike, but it has slowed down my training, where I'm trying to do as much gym work with one arm as I can. Basically it wasn't a good time of the year for all of this to happen."

In true Mladin character, he will not let the injury affect his motivation to come away from this weekend's double-header with as many points as possible. Having given Honda's Nicky Hayden a 38-point advantage this early in the season won't rest easy with the three times champion who will endeavour to overhaul the teenager in the remaining fifteen rounds in an attempt to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive AMA Superbike crown.