Rossi to have surgery
Reigning MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi of Yamaha has announced that he is scheduled to undergo surgery on his shoulder at the end of the season. The 31 year-old Italian has been tormented by a
series of injuries this year, severely affecting his contention for the 2010 MotoGP title. In an interview with Sky Italia TV, Rossi acknowledged, “In the end the problem is the shoulder. At the end of the year I'll have it operated on.”
Rossi missed races for the first time in his professional career when he injured his back and shoulder in April and broke his leg in June, leaving him out of four races. Rossi recovered to make a remarkable
comeback in July by finishing in fourth place at Sachsenring in Germany, and has earned two podium finishes since then.
Yet the injuries have virtually eliminated Rossi’s chances of defending the championship title, and he currently sits in fourth in the standings with 130 points.
Rossi isn’t the only racer to experience his share of injury trouble on the circuit this year. Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi required surgery on his hand after crashing at Misano, and will sit out of the upcoming
Gran Premio A-Style de Aragon.
Rossi also led the tributes this year to the death of Japan’s Shoya Tomizawa, who died at Misano after sustaining injuries from a collision with Scott Redding and Alex de Angelis. “When something so sad
like this happens everything else goes to zero; the result doesn't matter,” Rossi lamented, according to BBC Sport. "I'm so sorry for Shoya because he was a strong rider but above all he was very 'sympatico'. He was very funny, always smiling and he always
had nice things to say to everyone. He was also very young with a great career ahead of him so we are all very sad.”
Race enthusiasts are hoping that Rossi can recover his winning form again in 2011, when he will race for Ducati.
Tags: