I have got back to the UK after one of the toughest races of my career in Monza.

I broke the little finger on my left hand in qualifying on Saturday but managed to battle through a painful weekend to get a valuable sixth place.

It was a big high-side, and judging by the scuff-marks on the knuckles of my gloves, I must have come down and punched the track pretty hard.

I may also have squashed my hand with my body and I ended up winding myself. I was convinced my weekend was over but I went straight to the Clinica Mobile and was able to improve my qualifying time the same afternoon.

After missing the Sunday morning warm-up, the race was very uncomfortable. I had no real feeling in my left hand, so I wasn't able to wrestle the bike through the chicanes like I wanted.

In the end I was disappointed with sixth place as I felt I had the measure of Andrew Pitt and Robin Harms who finished ahead of me.

The injury meant I wasn't able to ride much of a tactical race and they were able to slipstream me on the last lap - but I would have taken sixth when I was lying on the ground after crashing.

All being well, I will be ready for Donington next weekend for a wildcard ride at the BSB round there.

I am going to give BSB doctor Toby Branfoot a call and get an opinion from him on whether I ought to be racing.

My priority is to be fit for the next World Supersport round in Germany in a month's time, so if I have to miss Donington I will, although it would obviously be a massive shame.

It is not too bad at the moment. I was able to drive the motorhome back, and have just been taking it easy at home and putting lots of ice on it.

It is getting better all the time and I am still able to do the majority of my training - it is no problem going on the exercise bike for example.

The doctors put a cast on immediately after the race, but my hand then swelled up so much that the pain became unbearable and I had to cut it off at the dinner table on Sunday!

Still, we made the best of what could have been a very bad weekend and managed to close the gap on championship leader Joan Lazscorz.

Although I have not yet had the results I wanted this season, I am only 28 points off the lead and hope a couple of good results will put me right back in the mixer.

After the Nurburgring, which nobody knows too well, there are a load of tracks like Brands Hatch, Donington, Misano and Vallelunga where I was fast last year.

The bike is so much quicker this year I see no reason why I can't fight for race wins.

Craig Jones was talking to Alex Chick / Eurosport