Stoner may miss ’09 MotoGP season

Casey Stoner

Casey Stoner has admitted his MotoGP season is in serious doubt due to continual pain in his wrist. Stoner underwent an operation on his wrist last November to repair an old injury but he says his movement is still severely hampered.

Remarkably he set the fastest lap times in the first official test series at Sepang in Malaysia recently.

"Three months have gone by and my wrist has little mobility and hurts badly," Stoner told Motosprint. "I don't like the way this story is going at all.

"I'll try not to think about it until the test in Qatar, then we'll see. If the situation in Qatar hasn't improved radically, then it means there will be plenty to worry about.

"I just think that three months have gone by and in my opinion the situation isn't good at all.

"I say that I shouldn't be in this situation, because the bone has healed, yet it hurts me badly. That's what I can't explain.

"It's been really disappointing finding out that after three months the wrist is a lot worse than I expected."

Stoner was unable to complete long runs at Sepang and was limited in his movement through some corners.

"I try to adapt, to change the way I sit on the bike," he said.

"I make some movements to make up for the fact that the wrist barely moves and most of all it hurts me a lot under braking.

"It feels almost unreal to me that I manage to be so quick. The situation is worse than I expected.

"I say it's not normal. I didn't expect to feel great, but not this bad either."