Fabio di Giannantonio: 80% risk of more shoulder dislocations

Fabio di Giannantonio will ride for the remainder of the 2024 MotoGP season aware that he has an “80%” chance of more shoulder dislocations.

"We’ll monitor this shoulder until the end of the season and then see if I have to get surgery," he added.

The VR46 rider dislocated his left shoulder in a Friday practice accident at the Red Bull Ring, adding to a previous right collarbone injury at the Sachsenring and ruling him out of the Austrian event.

Returning at Aragon last weekend, di Giannantonio impressed by beating team-mate Marco Bezzecchi for seventh in the grand prix, which became eighth after a tyre pressure penalty.

With just a few days to rest since, the Italian estimates he’s only at 60% physical fitness for this weekend’s first Misano round.

“[Aragon] has been a fantastic weekend because before coming there, I never thought it was possible to make this kind of race,” di Giannantonio said. “I was starting quite far and even though I made a lot of overtakes it was a really good race honestly.

“At the moment, we are trying to manage the pain overall because I still have to recover a little bit from the Sachsenring on my right collarbone, and then after Austria my left shoulder.

“So my body at the moment is a little bit the limit, but about the speed I'm not worried. With the bike, I’m feeling really good.”

Ninth in the world championship, as the second-best GP23 rider after Marc Marquez, di Giannantonio then revealed he faces an ongoing risk of further dislocations.

“At the moment I think I'm 60% physically and I think it will take a long time, honestly,” he said. “Because the shoulder is a really critical spot to get injured. So it's not that good. And also making now two races in a row is not great.

“I think in Misano 2 I will be maybe, I hope, 80%. But also it's true that from now until the end of the season, or until ever honestly, whatever crash I do, I have like an 80% that the shoulder can go away again. I can have another dislocation.

“So at the moment is quite critical and we have to work around this problem.

“We’ll monitor this shoulder from now until the end of the season. And then we will see if I have to get surgery or whatever.”

di Giannantonio will remain at VR46 next season, but be promoted to factory-spec machinery as part of a new contract directly with Ducati.