Gibernau will fight to return at Barcelona

Following his crash last Saturday at Le Mans and his subsequent surgery to fix a broken collarbone on Monday in Barcelona veteran rider Sete Gibernau has insisted he will fight to be fit for MotoGP’s visit to his home track in Catalunya in mid June.

With his estimated comeback time set at four weeks by doctors he will be cutting it fine, but while he accepts that the 29th-31st May Gran Premio d’Italia Alice is too soon he will work as hard as possible to be on the grid at Montmeló, in front of the masses of Catalan fans.

Updating motogp.com on his status, Gibernau commented, “The surgery was good. The collarbone is ok as they were able to see that it has no problems from the previous surgeries and the other broken part has now healed perfectly. I have broken the bone in a new place and afterwards they could see that the new plate and the screws have been fitted well to the bone. So now we just have to wait, prepare physically and that is our main goal.”

“I’m mentally strong and I would love to be ready for Mugello but I think it is too soon and we have to look to Barcelona. Hopefully we can get ready for that.”

Asked about his 2009 comeback to date, he remained upbeat despite his most recent setback, saying, “The season is going ok. We knew that this season would be difficult after two years away and that coming back after surgery and everything was going to be hard but every day we are a little bit stronger, the team is doing a great job. Hopefully one day we will be able to demonstrate that our comeback was a good decision.”

As to whether Gibernau’s team Grupo Francisco Hernando will field a replacement rider at Mugello a decision is anticipated shortly.