Gibernau back in action at Jerez

From motogp.com

When Sete Gibernau suffered a small setback to his recovery from a winter shoulder operation during a training session in February it significantly affected his 2009 MotoGP comeback programme, as he aggravated an old shoulder ligament problem and missed the Official MotoGP Night Test in Qatar.

Having never ridden under the floodlights at the Losail International Circuit that was a missed opportunity to prepare for the 2009 season opener on April 12 at the Arabian desert track, but Gibernau will be raring to go at this weekend’s Official MotoGP test in Jerez, with the Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati satellite team.

“The whole shoulder was affected but it has healed quite well," the 36-year-old told motogp.com. "I am not at 100 percent yet but I’m getting better. Having had to rest completely means the muscle around the area has weakened so we can’t go to Jerez and force things too much. I’ll do some laps on the first day and see if I can do a bit more on the second day, but the main thing is to make sure I don’t make anything worse before Qatar.”

The former World Championship runner-up admitted that the left shoulder injury has affected his plans for his Grand Prix return, stating, “Obviously this has set me back quite a bit. In the first couple of races the objectives will be fairly different to what they would have been, but it is important for us to take a step forward in Jerez and the same in Qatar at round one. I’ll have to train as much as I can and if I can’t finish the first race I’ll have to adapt.”