Valentino Rossi admits struggle to trust shoulder strength

Valentino Rossi has admitted to MCN that he’s struggling to regain full confidence with the physical capability of his right shoulder following an injury that has dogged the Italian now for nearly a year.

The 32-year-old is slowly working his way back to full fitness after he suffered serious tendon and ligament damage in his right shoulder during a motocross training crash last April.

The injury badly hampered the nine-times world champion throughout 2010 and he needed corrective surgery to repair the damage back in mid-November.

The factory Ducati rider is gradually regaining full strength in the shoulder and on the eve of this weekend’s season opening race in Qatar, he said he was now back to 70 per cent of his normal power.

But having compensated for the weakness in the shoulder for so long, Rossi said he was finding it difficult to push to his normal potential.

He told MCN: “I still have pain but now my power has improved a lot. Now I am around 70 per cent compared to the other shoulder. I can work more in the gym and ride the bike for more laps. But it is difficult to push the shoulder from a mental aspect.

“I made a lot of damage to my body in this last period and I have to restart to trust in my shoulder because last year I did a lot of races with the damage and I couldn’t push like I want.

“Now it is very important to restart to push with the shoulder, so the brain has to go back and trust in the shoulder.”

Rossi was 13th fastest in testing in Qatar earlier this week.