Leon Haslam’s visit to Lombok ended earlier than expected after the Honda WorldSBK rider was declared unfit on Saturday.

With no WorldSBK offers for 2022, HRC’s Haslam had to bid farewell to a championship he was runner-up in during the 2010 season, after recent surgery found more problems in his right arm and shoulder than expected.

“The operation should have been OK, but when they made the surgery there was a lot more damage in there so they had to repair two more ligaments,” Haslam explained from Indonesia.  “The original operation was to disconnect the bicep tendon and re-attach it in another place, which fundamentally would have been OK in the time. But when they made the operation the two other ligaments in the shoulder were also 30-40% torn. They repaired them and in the other operation, attaching the tendon. It was always going to be a painful weekend but not as much as what it was yesterday.”

It is particularly frustrating for Haslam not just because it is his last weekend and he wanted to go out riding on song and shooting for an elusive Honda podium, but because he had been right in the leading mix on Friday, in terms of simple best lap times.

“We were fast yesterday but only for two or three laps, then the drop was quite big and the pain was quite big. The decision between everyone was that there was no point,” he continued.

Haslam was put on the unfit list by the medics at Mandalika in any case.

“It would have been nice to have finished on a high but the realism of it is that in making 21 laps we would not have got the result that I wanted either, it would have been another frustrating day.”

On more than one level. “The really frustrating thing is that this circuit really seems to be suiting the Honda, the more flowing nature. It was only the last couple of corners we were struggling, in the rest we were fast. For this I am frustrated and we didn’t get to finish on a high, but it is what it is. We have to now recover and look to the future at what we are going to do.”

And what is that, exactly? Not sure, says Haslam, but he should still be riding next year.

“Nothing is set in stone but I am looking at different options, BSB and World Endurance,” Haslam admitted. “Again nothing sorted, a few different options, but we can take a week or two now after here and make some plans after that.”