MotoGP News: Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa Undergoes Surgery

Pedrosa to miss the 2015 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas at COTA.

After his sixth place finish in the opening MotoGP race of 2015 at Qatar, Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa returned to Spain to meet with specialists in Barcelona and Madrid. Their recommendation was for him to undergo surgery as soon as possible to fix his arm-pump issues that continued to plague him during the first round of the 2015 MotoGP Championship.

This common problem among motorcycle racers is a build-up of pressure in the forearm causing great pain, and makes riding a bike exceptionally difficult when the muscle becomes too big for the casing that contains the muscle.

Pedrosa underwent surgery this morning in Madrid, performed by Dr. Angel Villamor, an orthopaedic surgeon and Medical Director of iQtra Medicina Avanzada. The surgery took just over 2 hours with Dr. Villamor confident of its success. Special attention was paid to the closing of the wound to guarantee better recovery and less risk of the problem arising again in the future. Dr. Villamor completely removed the layer of fascia –  the casing around the muscle that gives it form and shape – which is causing problems for Pedrosa.

It is expected that Pedrosa will be discharged from the hospital in a few hours, after confirming that his post-operative evolution is positive. He will visit Dr. Villamor regularly in the coming weeks for check ups and then begin a custom physiotherapy program. A recovery time of four to six weeks is expected, however, his return to racing won’t be confirmed until Dr. Villamor can ascertain the success of the surgery.

Hiroshi Aoyama will replace the Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda MotoGP team during his recovery.