Todd Waters has had surgery today following a big crash at Townsville this past weekend. Image: Simon Makker/Makkreative.com.

Motorex KTM’s Todd Waters has collarbone undergone surgery today following an accident at the Townsville round of the Queensland Motocross Championships over the weekend.

The current Monster Energy MX Nationals MX1 series leader confirmed the news with MotoOnline.com.au today while recovering in hospital following the technical procedure.

Waters explained that he has broken the same collarbone he broke three years ago and continued to fill us in with more details on the surgery itself while remaining light-hearted about the whole situation.

“Three years ago I broke this same collarbone and I wanted to race that next weekend,” Waters told MotoOnline.com.au. “So I went in for an operation on a Monday and I got Steven Andrews to double plate it and I raced five days later on that following Sunday.

“I got through the day and it’s been good ever since, I never noticed it. But I had a big crash at the Queensland titles over the weekend and unfortunately I snapped it at the end of those two plates.

“So Steven Andrews has actually come back from holidays to operate on me, which is just crazy, it’s pretty cool. He’s pulled the other two plates off and he’s put a new plate on that’s a bit bigger so it covers the whole lot.

“I haven’t spoken to him yet, I saw him in surgery but I’ll speak to him tomorrow no doubt and hear a bit more information. But what we’re working on is getting back for Appin.”

Although most riders would see this as a devastating blow to their title campaign, the 22-year-old is surprisingly upbeat about his current situation and is focusing on being positive throughout the injury process.

“That’s racing, it’s just another exciting bit in my career [laughs],” Waters said. “Obviously you get disappointed, when I was a younger and I did my collarbone I was just laying in the hospital bed absolutely gutted. I had the red plate and I was just absolutey beside myself.

“But this year the start of the year was killer for me. I’ve trained so hard and it went perfectly, exactly how I wanted it. Unforunately I had a bit of a mishap riding the 250 two-stroke and knocking myself out and we got through that.

“We got through that safe and then now I’ve broken my collarbone and I’ve sort of laughed to myself a little bit. You know, at the start of the year I was thinking ‘this is too easy, I’m just winning races and it’s coming really easy to me’.

“My whole life I’ve worked so hard to win races and it was just picture perfect at the start of the year. Then I hit my head and that slowed me down a little bit, but I got through that and now it’s like ‘okay, we’re going to throw another obstacle at you and make it a little bit tougher for you again’ [laughs].”

“I’m just feeding off all the positives, I’m not being like I was when I was younger, I can’t change this.”

Waters will leave hospital tomorrow try to put himself in the best condition possible as he plans to contest the 14 July Appin MX Nationals round with no prior time on the bike during the next two weeks.

“I’m just working on getting out of hospital tomorrow and working on the things I can work on,” he added. “So get my diet in place and then talk to Steve obviously to see when I can start training and just start training off the bike as hard as I can. Doing cardio will obviously get a lot of the anesthetic out of my system and stuff like that.

“I’m just going to work on training hard and trying to feel the best that I can for Appin without hopping on the bike. I just want to feel the best that I can within myself and hopefully I can ride.

“We’ll just take it piece by piece, I can’t say how I can go or not. It’s just going to be another hurdle to cross, it’s exciting [laughs].”

Waters currently leads the MX1 championship by 25 points over Matt Moss with five rounds remaining on the 2013 schedule.