Fabio Di Giannantonio has been suffering since this summer. Already injured in the right shoulder since a fall at the Sachsenring, he dislocated his left shoulder in a fall at the Red Bull Ring, causing damage to the glenoid labrum (a cartilage in the left shoulder), which will probably require an operation that he does everything to postpone.
Before the Indonesian GP, the VR46 driver indicated “survive” currently on his motorbike, although he would rather need two months off for the sake of his shoulder. A break that was completely unthinkable in his eyes with the series of races at the end of the season. He will therefore take stock after the Japanese GP but for the moment, his objective is to appear at the start of each of the last six rounds of the year.
“When I ride, I only think about the competition and I was totally focused on this weekend [en Indonésie]this will still be the case next weekend“, explained Di Giannantonio, while having indicated from the first tests that it was “of the first race on which [il] se sentai[t] really physically limited” between pain and lack of strength.
“As long as I don’t do anything [pour soigner l’épaule]I want to do my best on the track and not think about anything else”, he continued at the end of the weekend. “We will have appointments with the doctors after these races and we will see the situation better but for the moment, everything is under control. At this stage, I do not need any operation or anything else, we are planning the rest but To date, there has been no operation.”
If Di Giannantonio adopts this approach, it is because he knows that an intervention would keep him away from the circuits for a certain time, while MotoGP is in the heart of a period of six races in seven weekends: “It is certain that if there is an operation, we know that the convalescence time is very long so if it has to be done, we will have to miss a few races this year. But for the moment it is not the plan.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Before the start of the weekend in Mandalika, Di Giannantonio said he was moving forward on a daily basis with his injury, without ever being able to really anticipate the evolution of his condition. On Sunday, he therefore did not really try to save himself in the eight laps he completed before his fall.
“Let’s say that now, every time we do a race, we don’t know what my condition will be at the end. The objective was to do the maximum and at the end, when the tire deteriorates and I’m more gentle on the bike, maybe I can save myself.”
The situation is all the more difficult because between races, Di Giannantonio has to preserve his shoulder more than really improve his physical condition: “It’s been almost two months now that I haven’t been training the way I want. I have to train by saving energy, or by saving mobility for the shoulder, etc. So I don’t train not properly for MotoGP.”
“I’m training, but I’m also recovering, so over a long period of time you lose your fitness. So I’m in the worst physical shape, and I’m still a little sore, so it’s getting a little worse, even though I recover from my shoulder. So yes, it’s a little difficult, but I’m not giving up, we have to try, so we push.”
Avec Luca Bartolomeo
