Dovizioso faces surgery after training fall

Milan: Italian MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso will have surgery Saturday after fracturing his right collarbone in a fall from a motocross bike in training, his Yamaha Tech3 team said.

Team manager Herve Poncharal told the motogp.com website that, with three weeks before the first test of the year at Sepang in Malaysia, he was not too concerned. "Both Colin (Edwards) and Cal (Crutchlow) recovered very quickly from similar injuries last season," said the Frenchman. The rider`s manager Simone Batistella added: "As far as the Sepang Test goes, the first impressions of the medics who examined him are that he should not have any major problems, and they expect and hope for a speedy recovery. "(On Saturday) he`ll have an operation and then we`ll know if everything`s going to plan or if there are any problems. The only certainty is that he`ll have a slight delay to his preparations for Sepang." Dovizioso, third overall last season with Honda, suffered the accident Thursday. He will be operated on in Bologna by the same surgeon who attended last year to nine times world champion Valentino Rossi. Bureau Report