James underwent successful surgery Friday afternoon to repair a broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist. Following last weekend’s race in Anaheim, where, after contemplating not even competing due to severe pain in his wrist following a crash in Phoenix the previous weekend, James rode valiantly to an impressive third-place finish.

Although initial x-rays after Phoenix did not indicate a break, an MRI performed on Thursday revealed that the bone was indeed broken. Surgery was performed by famed orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting, in Fremont, California.

As a result of the surgery, James will unfortunately not be competing in San Francisco this weekend. His return to racing will depend on how quickly he is able to recover post-surgery. He will be evaluated on a weekly basis, which will determine when he returns to the 2010 Supercross series.

“James is a true champion,” said L&M Racing’s Team Manager, Larry Brooks. “The fact that he rode as competitively as he did while making the podium at Anaheim 2 with a broken wrist (unknowingly) is testimony to that. He’s anxious to heal and get back on the track as soon as possible.”

Stay tuned for more details from James in the coming days…

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After the abuse that James’ body took during last weekend’s crashes in Phoenix, the defending SX champ had an irregular week of preparation for Anaheim 2. With a sore wrist, shoulder, and ankle holding him back, James was unable to ride all week, but showed up in Anaheim to give it his all toward staying in the championship points fight. Despite sitting out of the opening ceremonies to conserve some energy, James braved his way to the line for Supercross heat number one.

When the gates dropped, JS7 found himself chasing Tommy Hahn around the A2 circuit during the majority of lap number one, but threw down a pass just before crossing the finish line double for the first time. From there, Hahn made a pass back on James to reclaim the lead, but Stewart retaliated just a lap later to once again control the pace up front. On lap number six, James’ teammate Josh Hill, who rode incredibly well all night, snuck by to take over the lead. Safely within qualifying position, James followed Hill in for a relatively conservative second place finish.

A good start would be critical to accomplishing James’ goal of finishing on the podium in the A2 main event, and he did just exactly that. After rocketing down the start straight and crossing the holeshot stripe in the second spot, James immediately made a pass for the lead. James would go on to lead the first five laps of the main before giving way to Hill during the sixth go around, and then Suzuki’s Ryan Dungey got by on lap number 12. Despite riding through obvious pain, James held on to finish in a very respectable third place when all was said and done.

Collecting valuable series points, James now heads into another week of rehab on his injuries before lining up in the gate for round number four in San Francisco. “It’s tough,” James commented after the race. “I haven’t ridden all week, and about eight laps into it I just couldn’t hold on anymore. Ryan and Josh were riding really well, and I just didn’t have anything for them. I had sections where I was pretty good, but they were just on it. Congratulations to those guys, and I’ll just try to come back next week and see what happens.”

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