Bradley Ray has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming eighth round of the 2023 WorldSBK Championship at Most in order to correct an injury to his shoulder.

With only one round to go before the summer break, Ray will sit out the Czech event in favour of surgery so as to give him sufficient time to recuperate before tackling the remainder of his season.

The news comes on the back of a strong performance last time out at Imola, the 2022 British Superbike Champion cracking both the top six in qualifying and during the final race of the weekend on the Motoxracing Yamaha.

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“After such an amazing weekend at Imola, I’ve decided, in agreement with Yamaha and my team, tohave an operation to definitively fix an ongoing issue that I’ve been having with my right shoulder, something I’ve been suffering with for a while. 

“Even if it’s not debilitating, it often hinders my performance. Having been able to show at Imola, but also during previous rounds, that I deserve to be here in the Superbike World Championship, I want to tackle the second half of the season stronger than ever.

“I’m obviously really sorry I can’t go to the Czech Republic and the Most circuit, but I’ll now have a lot of time to fully recovery and, once the surgery is done, I’ll be aiming to score even better results. 

“I’d like to personally thank Andrea Dosoli, the entire Yamaha Motor Europe team and the Yamaha Motoxracing WorldSBK Team of course for their understanding. I can’t wait to see you all again after the summer break!”

Ray - who will only contest only three of the scheduled four remaining rounds post-summer break - will return to action on 8-10 September for Round 9 at Portimao.