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Valentino Rossi looks set to miss at least the next two races of the MotoGP World Championship after breaking his right leg in a motocross crash, according to his surgeon.
Dr Raffaele Pascarella, who attended to Rossi’s break in overnight surgery in Italy, says that the Movistar Yamaha rider will need to rest for “30 to 40 days” before further re-evaluation.
Rossi suffered displacement fractures (bone fragments not aligned) to his tibia and fibula in a motocross accident near his home town of Tavullia on Thursday evening.
The 38-year-old underwent surgery from 0200-0300 on Friday (local time; 1000-1100 AEST) to have a metal pin inserted.
Dr Pascarella described the procedure as “perfectly successful”.
“First, I want to say that Valentino is fine and this is the most important thing for us all,” he said in a press conference on Friday.
“I think he will certainly have to rest for 30 to 40 days, and then we will evaluate together in the next few weeks how to proceed.”
MotoGP has two races in the next 40 days, at Misano (September 8-10) and Aragon (September 22-24) while its flyaway triple-header of Motegi, Phillip Island and Sepang commences with the Japanese GP on October 15.
While the injury has been sustained to the same leg Rossi broke in a crash at Mugello in 2010, Dr Pascarella said that would have no effect as the bone would have healed within 4-5 months first time around, even though the fracture to the tibia was “very close” to the previous break.
“It’s not a bad thing to have done it on the same leg, it’s a different clinical story,” he added.
Rossi is currently fourth in what was being touted as a five-way MotoGP title fight this year, trailing points leader Andrea Dovizioso by 26 points.
