Danilo Petrucci provides fresh update: ‘I’m losing quite a lot of weight’

Danilo Petrucci missed the recent Assen WorldSBK round due to a training injury that resulted in surgery and a stay at the hospital.

In his absence Barni Ducati went on to take a surprising win thanks to Nicholas Spinelli, who won Race 1 after making a different tyre gamble to every other rider in the wet/dry race.

• Andrea Iannone: ‘I wouldn’t have continued if I finished 15th’ 

• BMW in awe as Toprak Razgatlioglu providing "special times"

The former MotoGP rider sustained fractures to his jaw and collarbone after an accident while riding motocross.

But in his latest update, Petrucci sat down with WorldSBK.com, saying: “I have no more stitches. I can’t chew. I can eat but only small and soft things. At least it’s good because I’m losing quite a lot of weight!

“I need to keep my shoulder still so I can’t move it for another 15 days. I did an MRI, and I don’t have any issues with the ligaments and the tendons, but the shoulder blade needs to be still because it needs to be fixed naturally.

“I mostly have to wait and see if the shoulder blade, the fracture, heals and I can push on my arm. The Misano test is still the target.

“We haven’t got a lot of time, but we can be at the test at the end of the month. I’m doing a lot of therapy.

“In my home, I have a magnetotherapy, it feels like a magnetic field where I lie down during the night, and I have some stuff to put on the broken bone.

“I’m taking a lot of supplements for vitamins to help the bones to repair. We are doing everything to try to be at the Misano test.”

The fall itself was a huge one for Petrucci, who crashed his motocross bike when performing a jump.

Discussing the incident, Petrucci added: “It was a big accident, really. I’ve been unlucky because I made that mistake once, you’ll make it one time in your life, and it happened to me.

“It was a bad area of this motocross track. It was like a ski jump. The faster you go, the higher you are, so I was really afraid.

“The last thing I remember was being up in the air. I just landed on the ramp of the next jump, like a hammer hitting a nail, so I smashed myself on the ramp of the other jump.

“I don’t remember anything, just that I was about 15 metres up in the air and I had nothing to do; I just had to wait to go into the floor.”

What was a consolation for the Italian is that he suffered no lower body injuries or severe impact to his back.

Petrucci is hopeful of being back in action at the Misano test later this month, before the same venue will host round four.

Petrucci admitted luck was on his side despite the injuries he suffered.

“I’ve been lucky because I have no injuries on my leg or my back, this is the most important thing, and I was especially lucky too because I received this hit on my head just a few centimetres from my neck bones,” added the two-time MotoGP race winner. 

“I smashed my jaw in the only part where the helmet was not protecting me. I smashed my face on the handlebar, and it was a really, I think, lucky accident.

“I smashed my jaw in three pieces, there’s a smashed collarbone in two and the shoulder blade is broken.

“This is the most difficult thing to repair, the shoulder blade, because the jaw is fixed by plates and screws and the collarbone, but the shoulder blade is still broken. I need to keep it still. 

“I think I’m happier now than before. It gives me the strength and I think it was a good thing to learn from and to grow up a bit to not risk as much, change my training a bit and be calmer.

“I say, ‘at 34 years old, I don’t need to be stronger, but smarter’. I was not doing that. I was just training to be stronger and stronger.”