Catalunya MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa to ride through pain barrier

Home favourite Dani Pedrosa will ride with the aid of regular pain-killing injections in this weekend’s Catalunya MotoGP clash in Spain.

The 23-year-old has declared himself fit to start practice on Friday having undergone trial injections on severe muscle damage in his right leg. Pedrosa was injured during a near high-side crash during practice for the last round in Mugello, and since the Italian clash he’s been taking complete rest to be in the best physical condition possible for the Catalunya race.

Pedrosa, who has an incredible record in Catalunya with three wins and six podium finishes, said: “I’m really looking forward to my home Grand Prix even though the build-up has hardly been perfect. For the past week I’ve just been resting and that’s pretty boring.”

But I went to see the doctor and the results of the new scan have been quite positive. They decided to give me a trial pain-killing injection so that I can judge how it will feel ahead of the weekend. And today’s scan really helped them pinpoint the best location for the injection so it can have the maximum effect, which was something they weren’t able to do in Mugello.

“The feeling was good, so it looks like I’ll have an injection before riding each day. Obviously it’s still not going to be comfortable riding the bike but I’m feeling positive that we can go into the weekend and aim for the best possible result.

“In spite of the problems, my motivation for my home race is still the same.”

Pedrosa’s world title hopes suffered a crushing blow in Mugello when he crashed out of the rain-hit flag-to-flag race. While lucky not to aggravate the leg injury suffered in practice in Mugello, he now trails series leader Casey Stoner by a massive 33-points.