Valentino Rossi concerned about shoulder recovery

Valentino Rossi’s opening press conference as a factory Ducati rider was dominated by the recovery of his damaged right shoulder and his hopes and aspirations of turning the Bologna factory into MotoGP world champions again.

• Pics: Valentino Rossi’s Ducati leathers unveiled

Speaking at a packed auditorium at the Madonna di Campiglio ski resort in Italy, Rossi spoke at length of his struggle to regain full fitness from the shoulder surgery he underwent in mid-November.  

The 31-year-old needed serious tendon and ligament damage to be repaired after he injured the shoulder in April when falling off his motocross bike in a training incident.

He spent the entire season riding in discomfort but hopes that he will be fully recovered in time for the start of his first Ducati campaign in Qatar on March 20 appear to be fading fast.

Rossi is behind schedule in his recovery process and reckons it could be April or May before he recovers full strength and movement in the shoulder.

The nine-times world champion said: “I have to say as far as the shoulder is concerned, there’s still a lot to do. Everything is going well but it’s a race for me to get in shape before the first test in February. It’s not going to be easy for me. Usually you need five or six months to be perfectly fit at 100 per cent and to have also the right strength.

“What I’ve seen, and this was explained to me also before, is that when you have a broken bone a lot can change in the times of recovery and as a rider, we’re good, we’re courageous and we’re experts in accidents and we can usually recover slightly faster in going back to a bike from a fracture.

“But unfortunately when you have to suture a tendon you cannot improve too quickly. You have to adjust yourself to the normal time for recovery. I hope to be in shape for the first race on March 20 at 100 per cent but it could be more April or May. That’s when I should be 100 per cent.”

Rossi denied regretting not undertaking surgery last season while he was out for four races with the broken right leg he suffered in Mugello. And he said he didn’t want to end his factory Yamaha career prematurely by having an operation before the end of the 2010 season to give himself more time to recover.

The former Fiat Yamaha and Repsol Honda rider added: “Unfortunately when the surgeons entered into the shoulder it showed that the damage was worse than expected. So after the surgery they told me that a bit more time would be necessary to recover. And I had two possibilities last year. I could have undergone the surgery after I hurt my leg.

“But it was not possible because with the shoulder I would have to stay in bed for one month without even moving with crutches, so I could not have done that. The other possibility would have been skipping the last two races of the season to undergo surgery after Australia.

“I would have some in better shape for the first tests in February, but I didn’t want to stay home and skip four races. I knew that in Portugal and Valencia I could do two good races, and I was sorry at not being able to race the last two races.

“Also I had the possibility of testing also the Desmosedici even if I was not at 100 per cent physically, but I tried at Valencia. So at the end the perfect solution did not exist so this was perhaps the best one that I took, hoping of course that I’d be in shape for February 1.”