Image: Octopi Media.

A separated AC joint in his shoulder left Ken Roczen in a troubled situation throughout the Birmingham Triple Crown, but he has indicated that the plan is to race-on in Monster Energy Supercross 2025.

The Progressive Ecstar Suzuki rider entered Alabama under an injury cloud and, while it became apparent that he had been injured in the off weekend, the extent of that damage has now come to light.

“On Friday the 14th, I ran out of talent for a quick second and separated my AC joint in my right shoulder,” Roczen explained. “I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t want to pre set my weekend with negativity while I didn’t even know how it’s going to be for riding.

“I wanted to ride press day because I needed time on the bike and I needed to feel out the shoulder. It felt weak and painful with certain movements.

“My shoulder was a bit worse than on press day for the first practice, so I was really just doing the jumps that were the easiest and least amount of stress. After doing a couple hot laps for the first time in Q1 my shoulder got worse the more stress I put on it.

“Thinking that Q2 was going to be quicker as per usual, I went out and I jumped into the whoops and somehow ended up wheel-tapping and it janked my bike and my shoulder got a massive stinger, so I retired for that one. I didn’t have much leverage as my right elbow was tucked into my body for riding, so I couldn’t really correct or if I did it really hurt.

“None the less, race time is the only thing that matters, so I went into the night show and was fired up about racing. In race one I had to pull up in a rhythm lane to triple one time and it really hurt my shoulder. It made my shoulder feel weaker and more limp.

“Race two went average and for race three I really wanted to put my head down one more time and put it as far up front as I could. I cased the triple a bit across from the finish going into the turn and it just smashed my shoulder pretty good again – I ended up bringing it home in fourth. The Triple Crown was the worst situation for it as well, but I’m glad they are now done.

“It absolutely sucks that the situation is the way it is, but we pull through as we always do. It’s really stressed from the weekend, so for now I just have to show up on the weekends and race and hope that it recovers decently from week to week.”

Roczen managed to record a 4-6-4 scorecard for fifth overall onboard his RM-Z450, retaining third in the point-standings following round 10 of the season.