When Valentino Rossi injured himself in a motocross accident two weeks ago, it was passed off that the Italian hadn’t sustained anything serious enough to have have kept him from racing at the Motegi round, except some discomfort that the doctors of the Clinica Mobile could have easily handled.
When the recent Motegi race was postponed becausethe Icelandic volcano disrupted travel across Europe, it seemed that lady luck was again on Rossi’s side, giving him another week to get back into shape, however in yesterday’s pre-race press conference at Jerez, the Fiat Yamaha rider revealed that his injury was a little more serious than what was previously reported, when he explained the incident.
“I was on the motocross track and in a left corner I entered into a rut a little bit too fast and I crashed with my right arm out,” said Rossi.
“The shoulder rotated upwards and fortunately it didn’t dislocate but I’ve stretched all the ligaments.
The shoulder didn’t dislocate but it tried to come out.
I was lucky it didn’t come out and the muscles resisted, but all the ligaments were stretched.
I have a small crack in a bone but it is already fixed, but the problem is the muscle.
Usually this type of injury needs three weeks but now it is only two weeks since the accident.
I need another seven days to return to 100 per cent.
”“Unfortunately the shoulder is still a problem and there is some pain,” said Rossi “Normally this injury takes three weeks to heal and it’s two weeks since it happened now, so I really need another seven days to be fully fit again.
I was very lucky that Motegi was postponed as it has given me an extra week to work on the shoulder and it has improved very much, but we will only find out how much tomorrow.
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