VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Gianantonio says his left shoulder feels brand new following last year's extensive reconstructive surgery and that it has vindicated the timing of when he stopped racing in order to have the operation.
Di Giannantonio damaged his shoulder in a crash at the Red Bull Ring last August, dislocating it and suffering a severe enough injury that his doctors recommended he go under the knife to repair it immediately.
However, he instead elected to keep racing with the VR46 team until October, missing only the final two events of the year in Malaysia and Spain to have the surgery and rebuild the joint, a move that was ultimately rewarded with a series of top-four finishes just before stepping away - despite the discomfort he was in during those races.
Di Giannantonio felt the timing meant he didn't miss out on any more of the 2024 season than he had to, while also allowing adequate recovery time before the new campaign - when he upgrades to the 2025-spec Desmosedici that only he and factory Ducati team-mates Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia will race.
Finally able to return to track action last week at Indonesia's Mandalika circuit, albeit on a Ducati V4S street bike rather than his MotoGP machine, Di Giannantonio was left buoyant about the pace of his recovery - and told media ahead of the start of pre-season testing in Sepang that his shoulder now feels brand new.
"I don't want to say big, big things," he admitted, "because for sure riding the MotoGP bike will be another story, another effort, another kind of stress for every muscle.
"But in Mandalika, everything went to plan and I didn't have any kind of pain or issue or trouble or limitation.
"Honestly, the Mandalika 'test' was really good, very positive, and I'm really hoping that here is the same.
"It's like new. Like nothing happened. Honestly, the staff at home and the professor were amazing. He's one of the best in the world to make these kind of surgeries, and I think he did an amazing job. Honestly, now the shoulder is really, really good.
"Thinking back now to how I was riding the MotoGP bike in the last races of last year… woah, it was tough. Now it's a completely different story."
Despite some apprehension at the time about jumping out of the 2024 season two races early, Di Giannantonio feels now that, with the power of hindsight, he made the exact right call for his recovery timing.
"When I was at home, I was missing it a lot," he said. "It was super tough. I wanted to race, I wanted to be on the bike. When they were at the test and the new bike arrived in the garage with my number… awwh man! I wanted to ride!
"But honestly now, it's the best decision that I could have ever done. It was the right time, the precise time, and for sure maybe some more time would have been a little better, but I came at the right time to not risk arriving ready for the season, and we did a good job."
While he might now feel fully fit, he's also well aware that only actual time on a MotoGP machine, rather than a production bike, will show the full extent of his recovery - and as such is adamant that he and his team will be taking things steady as he returns to action at Sepang on Wednesday.
"The plan is to do the full programme without any kind of stop or reduction," Di Giannantonio explained.
"For sure we have to see step by step, run by run, how the shoulder is, because we don't want to burn the shoulder on the first day and miss the second and third.
"We don't know what to expect from the MotoGP bike. We know that the position on the bike is more extreme than all the other bikes, and the effort that you put on it is more intense.
"We'll proceed with a bit of caution, but the goal is to do the full programme."
