Di Giannantonio declared fit for Thai GP but says shoulder is at “zero per cent”

Despite getting the approval from doctors, di Giannantonio feels his physical fitness is compromised

VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio has been declared fit by MotoGP doctors to contest this weekend’s season opener in Thailand, but he feels his shoulder is at “zero per cent” capacity after a testing injury.

Di Giannantonio was performing a wheelie after the opening day of pre-season testing in Sepang when he fell off his Ducati GP25 and broke his left shoulder in the impact.

The bizarre incident meant that he had to fly back to Europe to undergo surgery last month, ruling him out of the remainder of testing.

The Italian already had an operation done on the same collarbone in November after a crash during the Austrian Grand Prix, meaning he had to be extra careful during his recovery period.

As such, he could not even ride a road bike over the last fortnight, while his exercise options at the gym were also limited.

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Although the medical staff gave him the all-clear to race in the Thai GP on his arrival in Buriram on Thursday, Di Giannantonio feels he is only 95 per cent fit for the race, while his shoulder is operating at “zero per cent”, according to him.

“My surgery has been perfect but I broke my collarbone in a particular point, quite on the edge of the collarbone, so the plate that we put is on the edge of the collarbone, and if I stress this collarbone in these 14 days [after surgery] I could have had a problem because the collarbone will be broken and then there would have to be another surgery,” he explained.

“So these 14 days have been quite critical and I had to be really precise on the work to do on the shoulder again.

“I will be on the bike on my 17th day after surgery, so I think it will be a good time to trust that.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose

He added: “Most of the time I was at physio. Most of my money and my time at physio.

“After the first surgery the recovery was quite long so I did a lot of pool work in the gym, on the physio side, especially on the physio because I couldn't work out in the gym because I really have to rest the shoulder again.

“Now I'm like 95 per cent physically ready and zero per cent on the shoulder. But I feel good and motivated to start.”

Di Giannantonio explained that the usual recovery time from a fracture was close to six weeks, but his fast-tracked schedule meant that it wasn’t possible for him to complete even basic exercise like push-ups as part of his training schedule.

“If you read even in the books, you need more or less six weeks to make a bone recover perfectly," he said.

“We are much less than six weeks and also the way I had to recover [was different]. I just had to give the time to the plate and the collarbone to recover as much as possible to arrive here.

“So it's not doing 10 or 20 push-ups these days that make you stronger or more ready for racing. If you do proper work in one or two months, for sure it helps, but 20 push-ups on Monday or three days ago is useless.”

That said, di Giannantonio said he felt “fully confident” that he would be able to complete the race in his current condition.

He said: “I will be ready. I will miss some power on the left side, but last year I did some races where the shoulder was coming out in every braking, so not much worry.”