Rossi casts doubts over shoulder
Valentino Rossi has cast doubts over his fitness after testing a Ducati 1198SP Superbike at Misano yesterday. He believes that the shoulder which he injured last year in a motocross event and had an operation on over the Christmas period, is still causing him problems.
According to the Ducati press release, the nine times world champion said that "...the shoulder is painful - especially under braking, when the front hurts, where they stitched the tendon." Rossi wasn't all downbeat however: "Movement is stable enough, and we're also doing not so bad with endurance, but apart from that, it hurts a lot and isn't very strong."
So what can we gain from this when trying to guess what threat Rossi poses to reigning champ Jorge Lorenzo? Probably not much as like that other great champion, Barry Sheene, the Italian has always been superb at manipulating the media and getting in the heads of their rivals. Both riders have reputations for utterly destroying team mates and rivals both on and off the track, meaning that this could be a ruse to lure his rivals into a false sense of security. As always, you can debate this and other issues surrounding the coming season all day, but questions will only be answered at the first Grand Prix in Qatar.
