Andrea Dovizioso to undergo surgery on broken collarbone

Andrea Dovizioso has joined Nicky Hayden on the MotoGP pre-season injury list after he broke his right collarbone while training on a motocross bike in Italy yesterday (Thursday).

The Italian is now facing a battle to be fit for the opening test of 2012 at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia on January 31, though his new Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad expect him to be ready to test Yamaha’s new 1000cc YZR-M1.

The former 125GP world champion will undergo surgery on the damaged collarbone in Italy tomorrow (Saturday) and Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal expects Dovizioso, who finished in a career best third place last season behind Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, to be ready to join Cal Crutchlow in Sepang later this month.

Poncharal told MCN: “I have spoken to him and he is fine. It was a slow speed crash and he was just unlucky. He will have surgery on the collarbone tomorrow and he is very optimistic that he will be fine for the Sepang test.

“That test is still over three weeks away but Andrea is really fit and the break is not a bad one.

“Andrea has said he has no doubt that he will be in Malaysia. Obviously there is never a good time to get injured but I suppose the only positive is that it happened now and not in the middle of June.”

Dovizioso is the latest high profile MotoGP rider to suffer a winter injury after Hayden recently confirmed he’d broken his left shoulder blade and two ribs in a flat track crash while starting his recovery from a broken right wrist he suffered at the final round of 2011 at Valencia.

The French-based Tech 3 squad is used to dealing with broken collarbones after Crutchlow and Colin Edwards both suffered the same injury during 2011.

Texan Edwards made a remarkable recovery after he smashed his left collarbone in Catalunya but scored a podium finish just nine days later during a rain-lashed British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

And Poncharal added: “When you look at how quickly Colin and Cal both recovered from their collarbone injuries we are confident Andrea will be close to 100% fitness for the first test.”