Lydd’s Bradley Ray will miss the next round of the Superbike World Championship in the Czech Republic as he recovers from a shoulder operation.

Ray, who claimed his best Superbikes finish of sixth last time out at Imola for Yamaha Motoxracing, has been suffering from a troublesome shoulder throughout the season and is scheduled to undergo surgery on Wednesday. He lies 17th in the standings on 19 points.

The series takes a summer break after this week’s round at the Most Autodrom, giving Ray ample time to recover before the following race in France on September 8-10.

“After such an amazing weekend in Imola I've taken the decision, along with Yamaha and my team, to undergo surgery for a troublesome intermittent shoulder problem I've been suffering with," he said.

“Whilst it's not particularly debilitating it has sometimes hampered my performances when it comes to pushing hard, and after Imola and the previous few rounds have given me the opportunity to show that I fully deserve to be here in the World Superbike Championship I want to go into the second part of the season stronger than ever.

“Obviously I'm disappointed to be missing out on going to the Czech Republic and the Most circuit, but now I'll have lots of time to recover and once this operation is done I plan to deliver even better results.

“I'd personally like to thank [Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Manager] Andrea Dosoli, the whole team at Yamaha Motor Europe and of course all my Motoxracing team for the understanding, and I look forward to seeing you all after the break.”

Ray’s team principal, Sandro Carusi, said: “I’m really sorry that Bradley has to take this enforced break, just as some strong results were coming. But we’ve decided to stop now in order to give him the time to recover and then aim for the best possible final part of the season.”