The saga surrounding Valentino Rossi's shoulder took a further 'twist' at Mugello on Thursday when the reigning MotoGP🤡 world champion revealed it may take months to heal properly - and could even require surgery.

This is the same injury, sustained during a motocross training accꦫident in mid-April - shortly after his victory in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix - that was initially described as 'bruising'.

But Rossi subsequently revealed that his shoulder had almost dislocated - damaging ligaments in the process - an꧙d that he also had a small crack in the bone.

The Italian nursed the injury on his way to a close third in round two at Jerez, b💜ut expected to be back to full fitn🧸ess by Le Mans on May 21-23.

Although he didn't blame his shoulder for the lengthy French defeat he suffered at the hands of team-mate and title leader Jorge Lorenzo, the shoulder ha🌳d been far from perfect and Rossi painted a bleak picture on the eve of his home grand prix.

"T🗹he problem is that the shoulder is not 100 percent stable, so I need more time," he began. "Usually a normal person would need three and a half months or four months to come back to 100 per cent.

"It is one month and a half month now. I need to work very much to improve my muscle, to try to keep the shoulder stable with the power of the muscle, so that I have less ෴pain and more force to ride the bike.

"If it is not possible [to recover] then at the end of the season I wilꦏl have surgery. It is a big problem unfortunately."

That recovery t🍸imeline of several months is very different from the one Rossi gave when he 𒁃first spoke publically of his injury during the Spanish Grand Prix - on the 29th of April - when he said: "This type of injury needs three weeks".

Rossi explained that after Jerez his rate of recovery hౠad suddenly declined.

"The problem is that o🐽ne week after Jerez the [rate of recovery] became stable. In general the shoulder did not improve very much from that moment," he said. "So when I wake up in the morning for one hour and a half or two hours, is a big, big pain.

"I always have problems sleeping in the night. During the day it becomes a bit better. For a normal life I am quite๊ good. I am able to drive the car and wear jeans, but to ride the bike is difficult. So the improvement is very, very slow," he warned.

R▨ossi starts round four of the 2010 championship nine ⭕points behind Lorenzo, who has won the last two races.

ꩲWhat do you think? Is Rossi's shoulder really that bad, or is the #46 seeking to reduce pressure aheaꦬd of his home race, which he won from 2002-2008...