While Dani Pedrosa has been spared the surgeon’s knife for his broken collarbone, Valentino Rossi underwent his surgery this weekend for his injured shoulder, which will see the new Ducati rider out of action for 90 days. Rossi’s shoulder, which was a bigger factor in the 2010 season than the rider’s broken leg that saw him miss four races, was injured in April during a motocross cross-training accident, and plagued the Italian throughout the latter half of the 2010 season.
Surgeons at the Cervesi di Cattolica hospital preformed an arthroscopic procedure on Rossi’s supraspinatus tendon and glenoid ligament, encountering no complications in the procedure. Recovery times for this type of surgery typically last 12 weeks, which should mean that Rossi will be fit enough to test early next year at MotoGP’s second testing session.
“The condition of the shoulder was really critical: Valentino really had to be tough to keep racing with that kind of injury,” said surgeons Dr. Alex Castagna and Dr. Giuseppe Porcellini. “The intervention went well, without any complications. For rehabilitation, you’d usually need 90 days for that kind of injury but we’ll do our best in order to meet the requirements of the rider.”
While Rossi heals his wounds, he’ll have plenty on his mind during the rehabilitation sessions. With Ducati not making many changes to the Desmosedici GP11, Rossi and his crew will have to contend with the same front-end issues that plagued Stoner and Hayden in the 2010 season. While testing at Valencia last week, it was apparent that even The Doctor could not overcome the Ducati’s troublesome nature, so we’ll have to wait until next year to see how the team overcomes that challenge. Rossi intends to keep his fans abreast of his recovery on his personal website: valentinorossi.com.
Source: MotoMatters; Photo: Yamaha Racing
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