Andrea Dovizioso has been officially declared fit to return to competition for the MotoGP season opener at Jerez this weekend.
The Ducati man has been in a race against time to get race fit after breaking his collarbone in a motocross crash at home in Italy a couple of weeks ago.
He was immediately transferred to the nearby Policlinico di Modena hospital for emergency surgery on the collarbone, which fortunately for the Italian went well and has allowed him to focus solely on recuperating ahead of the MotoGP season opener.
Confirmed by Ducati in a short Twitter statement, Dovizioso underwent a medical examination by MotoGP doctor Angel Charte to evaluate the progress of the broken collarbone, with Charte ruling that Dovizioso’s injury has healed sufficiently as to allow him to take to the track this weekend.
All attentions will now switch back to whether Dovizioso will take to the MotoGP grid in 2021, as his discussions with Ducati about extending his contract continue to rumble on.
Dovizioso’s manager Simone Battistella told Motorsport.com two weeks ago that a sabbatical has come a very real option for the three-times premier class runner-up, admitting that talks between the two parties have stalled for now.
“It is an option that we value (taking a sabbatical),” said Battistella .
“If the conditions are not met, he prefers not to continue.
“Andrea is not thinking about retiring, he feels strong and well, he is in the best shape and he does not think about leaving.
“It is true that if you do not have an interesting project you are not interested in accepting, you are willing to wait until it arrives.
“That does not mean he is going to retire, it means that he is not going to have a team to race in and he is going to wait for that project to come.”
Who should replace Dovizioso if he does decide to head off into the sunset remains a mystery, with current Pramac Ducati satellite racer Francesco Bagnaia’s competitiveness still a question mark, while potential new signing Jorge Martin having not even made his MotoGP debut yet.
Ducati World Superbike racer Scott Redding has made it clear he is aiming for a return to premier class motorcycle racing in the future should he lift the title in his respective series, and he does have Ducati MotoGP experience after spending two full campaigns with the Pramac outfit.
