NW200: Lee Johnston sets Isle of Man TT goal after being ruled out of Northern Ireland showpiece

The Northern Ireland man, who lives in Huddersfield, sustained a broken right leg in a crash during pre-season testing in Spain in February.

Johnston hoped to be in a position to return to the north coast road race this week after he suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash during Supersport qualifying at the event last year, but he has been forced to put his comeback on ice.

The 35-year-old has won five times at the North West, including a Supertwin double, two Supersport victories and a Superstock triumph, and Johnston admits he has been left bitterly disappointed by this latest setback.

Speaking on his personal YouTube vlog, he said: “I mentioned when the cage got loosened that we were on a trial period of a few days and it could have gone either way; it didn’t go the way I wanted.

“The leg didn’t react the way it needed to react in order to take the frame off, so the rods had to be put back in again and the frame had to be tightened back up.

“To put this into perspective, we were trying to take it off at seven weeks and to start off with, the surgeon told me it was going to be at least 14 to 16 weeks – so that’s how far ahead we were trying to push the situation.

“It’s not physically possible [to race at the North West 200] because I’ve still got the cage on my leg, so firstly that’s really upsetting.

“Obviously that was the place of the really big crash last year and in my head I thought I’d easily be back, fit enough, to race there again and put that all to bed – go back and hopefully try to win again.

“But that’s not the case now – we’re definitely not fit to do the North West 200 – but the next big thing is to try and do the TT if I’m still fit to be doing the TT.

“That all revolves around whether the leg is strong enough to have the cage removed and that’s the next part of the news that I don’t know yet.”

The Ashcourt Racing rider will attend the event to work as a pundit for BBC Sport NI.

Johnston added: “A lot of people have sent me such nice messages and have been willing me with support, so I’m really looking forward to going.”