Suppo dismisses Stoner surgery speculation
Added on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Suppo dismisses Stoner surgery speculation
Ducati boss Livio Suppo has dismissed speculation that Australian rider Casey Stoner will require another operation on his troublesome right wrist.
The 2007 champion reported significant pain in his wrist at the official MotoGP test in Sepang three weeks ago despite undergoing an operation to fix the problem immediately after the final race of the 2008 season at Valencia. Stoner, who came second in the championship last season, had to take numerous rest breaks throughout the three day test and declared himself “disappointed” with what was achieved despite posting the fastest time of the weekend.
Further concerns raised by Stoner over the injury had fuelled speculation that the Ducati rider was about to go back under the knife but Suppo has dismissed those claims.
“Nobody has spoken about another operation,” the Ducati boss told MotoGP.com. “The doctors said that the surgery went OK, so now it’s a question of doing exercises to increase mobility in his wrist,” said the Italian. “Everything should be under control. In Sepang he was able to ride the bike, like the doctors said, and he was unbelievably fast.
“He will have to work hard on his wrist. It won’t be easy for him, but he has the character to do it. We have to wait and see what happens in Qatar; hopefully the circuit is less physically demanding for the riders and better for him than Sepang.” emphasized Suppo, who also paid tribute to the work done by Stoner’s new teammate Nicky Hayden at the first test of 2009.
“Nicky wasn’t as fast as Casey in Sepang, but you have to remember that Casey joined us in 2006. Sepang is a special circuit, and Nicky was as fast as Casey in T1 and T2. I spoke to him after the test, and I really believe that he has a great attitude to us working together.”
