Carlton Dry Honda Thor Racing’s Brad Anderson suffered an unfortunate turn of events at round eight of the Monster Energy MX Nationals, sustaining an ankle injury at the Appin facility in New South Wales.

Anderson showed promise in the first MX1 moto of the day with a holeshot, and finishing out in third. The British rider again pulled a solid start in moto two, only to come together with another rider mid-air and twist his ankle.

The injury caused Anderson to take an early exit from the moto and head to the Racesafe truck for further examination.

The mishap hindered his results on the day and proved to be a damaging blow to his 2012 MX1 title campaign.

“I felt great and I was so comfortable on the bike today I just can’t believe my bad luck,” Anderson said. “It felt like I had torn something but Racesafe examined my ankle and strapped it so I could contest the final race.

“I had limited movement and ninth was definitely not my best race finish but it could have been a lot worse. I wanted to make sure I came away with some points from that race.”

Finishing the round in 10th place overall, Anderson dropped back to fourth overall in the championship standings. He will now undergo extensive physiotherapy before heading into the penultimate round of the series at Moree in New South Wales on 19 August.