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Sete Gibernau will be forced to miss the upcoming test at Qatar, due to take place in early March, after the was advised by doctors to let an injured shoulder heal from having a damaged ligament. The injury occurred during training, and  he will need four weeks for the injury to recover properly.

Missing the Qatar test is a bit of a blow to Gibernau, as this would have been his first time riding under the night time lights of the Qatar circuit. This will leave Sete and Niccolo Canepa as the only riders who have not experienced the night conditions at Qatar when the race starts on April 12th.

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Hopper and Melandri still seem to be in MotoGP pergatory, which only gives people more time to speculate on what might become of the two riders. The prevailing rumor right now is that Hopper could end up with a World Superbike ride with Stiggy Honda Motorsports, along-side rider Leon Haslam. This move would mean that Hopkins would replace Roberto Rolfo, who has had problems with a dislocated shoulder.

This appears to be news to Rolfo who recently posted to his site about his recovery and plans for the season without any apparent concern about being replaced by the American.

Hello boys!
In these days I am receiving a lot of mail regard to my injury, I want in the first place say you “thanks” for your support! During the tests of Portimao I completed only a few laps, the lesion was still too much fresh; I knew that it would not have been immediately easy, but it has been however important for me to enter in track, to better know the bike and the new team! I’m happy because the upgrades them is very high!
The days before the next tests in Australia are enough for being able to recover the form with a lot of motivation and training! I am not losing not even a minute of time, therapy, race, bicycle, swim, always with much music: thanks special also to Diabo for the songs of the “El Canto del Loco”! I will take advantage of every day at best, in order to arrive to the top in Australia for the next tests!
By by… and always… Gasss!
Roby44

With the pace that the news has been going about these two, it is really only a matter of time before the Hopkins/Melandri Moto2 rumors start surging; but until then, WSBK might seem like a nice fit for Hopper.

rossi-champagne-shower

The proof is in, Valentino Rossi is a tall lanky bastard. The Italian two-wheeled dynamo has reportedly tripped and fallen while attempting to operate window blinds, possibly Levelors. Really, we couldn’t make this up if we tried.

Rossi will need stitches to in his hand and foot for the cuts that resulted from his landing on a glass table. Yamaha expects Rossi to be able to ride in Malaysia. Unfortunately, nothing could be done for the table.

Kawasaki concluded their testing at Phillip Island before the winter break today, after which John Hopkins headed almost immediately to the hospital to have surgery performed on his leg.

Hopper had been experiencing pain ever since the surgery performed after his crash in Assen early in the 2008 season. Toughing it out, Hopkins showed determination to get this last week’s worth of testing in:

“Today was more positive for me. The injuries weren’t such a big problem, although I had to adapt because I still can’t put any pressure on the left footpeg…we found a pretty good setup on the bike, and my lap times were pretty consistent over the long runs we did for Bridgestone, and it’s this consistency that’s important to our development program right now.”

Hopper clocked in 1’32.1 lap today, about a second off his qualifying time at Phillip Island earlier this year.

Even though MotoGP is such a high profile sport, it is understated how often MotoGP riders become injured during the racing season (Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo also had notable injuries during 2008), and how often  they ride on Sunday’s races with aliments and pains that would leave most of us weekend racers sitting on the couch with a cold one in hand, watching the races instead.

Hopkins plans to take it easy after the surgery, make a full-recovery, and then “train [his] butt off ready for the new season”.

Source: MotoGP; Photo: MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images