Six-month recovery for Valentino Rossi

The surgeon who operated on Valentino Rossi’s broken right leg reckons the nine-times world champion will need six months to make a complete recovery.

The prognosis by Professor Roberto Buzzi, who carried out a two-and-a-half-hour operation to insert a pin in Rossi’s broken right tibia last weekend, is the 31-year- old will need until December to be fully recovered. 

That would mean Rossi would not race again in 2010, though many believe he will be fit and ready for competition well before the conclusion of the current campaign.
Rossi himself has stated that he believes he could be back to fitness and ready to race his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 by the middle of August. 

And an August/September return would seem realistic given professional motorcycle racers have a history of defying medical convention, recovering much quicker from injuries than the average person.

Explaining the exact injuries suffered by Rossi when he high-sided at close to 110mph in practice for his home race at Mugello, Dr Buzzi said: “Valentino suffered a ‘grade 2′ open fracture of the distal third right tibia, as well as a bifocal fracture of the fibula.”