Casey could miss season to go under knife
Added on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Casey could miss season to go under knife
Casey Stoner could miss the end of the current MotoGP season as he goes under the knife to fix a long-term hand injury.
The Australian, who has all but lost his world championship defence to Valentino Rossi, is still struggling with a well-documented scaphoid fracture in his right hand and is due to have surgery in the off-season – ruling him out of much of Ducati’s pre-season testing.
But both Stoner and Ducati boss Livio Suppo have suggested that the 22-year-old may go under the knife earlier than expected, meaning that Stoner would miss the end of the MotoGP season.
“I´m not 100% but I’ve got a few weeks to try and improve a few things,” said Stoner. “I do need an operation, but we´ll race for as long as we can and try and do it at the end of the season. I don´t think that we will do the tests at the end of this year; maybe Valencia but I´m not sure.”
Ducati MotoGP Project Manager Livio Suppo also revealed his doubts over his number one rider, suggesting that Stoner could miss at least one of the final three races should the pain become too much.
“Let´s say that at the moment, it (the injury) is a problem in the races for Casey. He doesn´t speak too much about it, but we will be taking things race-by-race,” explained Suppo.
“If the pain is manageable then he will finish the season, otherwise we will try and get something arranged earlier. At the moment it seems that he will be able to complete the year, but if he is operated on after Valencia then he will definitely miss the Jerez test -that´s not a big issue as he doesn´t need a lot of tests in which to understand the bike.”
