Repsol Honda MotoGP rider Nick Hayden called the SuperBikePlanet office this afternoon and said he is hoping to ride this weekend at Portugal despite his recent injury.

Hayden crashed a dirt bike last weekend and broke his right collarbone, tweaked his knee and rung his bell slightly.

Hayden doesn't fully remember the crash. "We were riding some Motard stuff and honestly I was cooling off, not pushing at all, when I crashed. I hit my head a little in the crash and don't really remember all of the crash--just parts of it. I went around some slower riders and I don't know if I hooked one of them or what but .. sometimes it's the little crashes where you get caught out."

Hayden was out for a few moments after the crash, but did get up and walk away under his own power afterwards.

"I started walking away and thought I was okay, I was a little sore, but not too bad. Then I started feeling around and realized that I broke my collarbone."

Hayden also injured his knee in the fall, although the injury is not serious. "My knee was real sore after the crash so I went in and had an MRI on it and it's fine, just bruised I guess."

Hayden was driven from the crash site to the Imola hospital in the city of Imola (near the Imola racetrack) where Dr. Claudio Costa is on-staff. Costa watched over the surgery but did not perform the operation--he had a local specialist take care of it. Hayden suffered a single break to the bone, which was repaired using a small plate and eight screws. "Being so close to the track they were pretty much set up for it. I was in surgery a couple of hours after the crash," Hayden said.

Hayden is currently living in the basement of Costa's house in Imola and undergoing light rehab.

The former Superbike champ says he intends to ride this weekend in Portugal. "Sure, I'm going to try. But it's not like I'm leading the (championship) points, and (in addition) we have a bunch of races coming up. If I can ride competitively, I will. If I can't, I won't. This isn't a series where you can cruise around and still get fifteenth place."

Hayden says the sole upside to the situation is that he was injured in Italy near Costa's hospital. Oh, and with most things in Italy, you can make bad situations much more tolerable by simply obtaining some of the local food.

"Oh man, the food in the hospital was amazing," said Hayden. "The spinach was incredible. And then Costa takes me to his place and cooks, and it's like ... this guy is at least as good a cook as he is a doctor."