Espargaro fighting to race after foot fracture

Pol Espargaro was forced to sit out qualifying for Sunday's Malaysian MotoGP after breaking the second metatarsal bone in his left foot during practice at Sepang.

Espargaro fell after a small piece of glass punctured the oil radiator on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike, leaking fluid onto the back wheel.

The reigning Moto2 champion is not sure if he will be fit enough to race, but intends to do all he can to take his twelfth place on the grid - possible since he had already set a practice lap time good enough to reach Qualifying 2.

"My injury is not the best now but we are putting some ice on it and maybe tomorrow we can ride in the race," said Espargaro. "It will be difficult but we will fight for it and try and race tomorrow."

Andrea Dovizioso and Scott Redding tried to warn Espargaro just before the incident, but the smoke was intermittent and Espargaro could not spot the damage.

"They said that I had something at the rear but I checked and it was ok," he said. "The bike was letting a small [amount of] oil on to the wheel but it was impossible to see and I didn't see it.

"Dovi and Redding saw it and they told me that there was a problem with the bike, but I didn't see it so I continued pushing and it had the same power and everything at the end of the straight but when I braked some oil was starting to come onto the wheel."

The injury is clearly painful for Espargaro but failing to race could mean surrendering any chance of claiming sixth in the world championship from brother Aleix - and leave him vulnerable to team-mate Bradley Smith, just eight points behind.

"We'll have to forget it because tomorrow we have a race. Changing gear will be really difficult with the pain but I don't know because I've never raced like this but we'll see tomorrow what happens."

As well as the injury, the accident left Espargaro's YZR-M1 burning at the side of the track.