Andrea Dovizioso has been sent for surgery after breaking his left collarbone during a motocross event, three weeks out from the MotoGP season-opener.

Dovizioso had been contesting a round of the Emilia Romagna Cross Championship in Faenza, Italy, when he crashed and reportedly landed hard on his left shoulder on Sunday (local time).

Ducati confirmed that its leading rider was going into surgery immediately, in light of the proximity of the Spanish MotoGP on July 17-19.

After suffering a crash during a motocross race in Faenza, @andreadovizioso has sustained a left collarbone injury. After consultation with Prof. Porcellini, Dovi has decided to proceed with surgery this evening in Modena to be fit in time for the start of the 2020 @motogp season pic.twitter.com/3xZdNxwxDP

— Ducati Corse (@ducaticorse) June 28, 2020

“Luckily, it is not a compound fracture,” said Ducati Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti according to Italian outlet GPOne.com.

“This evening he will be operated on and a plate will be put into his shoulder in order to speed up the recovery.

“The goal is that he can race at Jerez.”

Dovizioso, who is enthusiastic about using motocross as a form of training, has been the runner-up to Marc Marquez in each of the last three MotoGP seasons.

The Italian is still unsigned beyond the end of the upcoming campaign although his manager, Simone Battistella, had told La Gazzetta dello Sport last week that, “For me, it’s 99 percent certain we will renew.”

Should he stay, Dovizioso would be joined at the Ducati Team in 2021 by Jack Miller, while current team-mate Danilo Petrucci is on his way to Red Bull KTM Tech3.