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Maverick Vinales explains suspected cause of ‘loose screw’ injury
Maverick Vinales believes a Sepang testing crash may have triggered the ‘displaced screw’ in his shoulder.
When Maverick Vinales landed on his left shoulder on the final day of February’s Sepang pre-season MotoGP test, the Tech3 KTM rider was confident it proved his injury woes were finally behind him.
“I tested the shoulder well. I landed [with it] on the ground!” Vinales said. “It was the best test I could do. And the shoulder is perfect. So for me it’s totally healed.”
But with hindsight, that impact is suspected of causing a screw inserted after last July’s Sachsenring crash to loosen.
“It’s hard to understand. The doctors said maybe in the last corner crash in Malaysia, the screw moved a little bit, and then little by little it started to come out,” Vinales said at COTA.
“During the winter, the shoulder was quite good. Every week, I was feeling better and without pain.
“In Sepang, I also felt good. So it’s not that you crash, and it came out there and then.
“I think little by little it came out, until the point that I said, ‘OK, something is not normal here, so I need to check’.”
That moment came after round two in Brazil, where Vinales again failed to score points.
“Even if the bike is bad or not, I cannot be at that level; this is not normal for me,” he said.
“So I did a CT scan on Thursday [before COTA].”
Despite the ‘displaced screw’ being spotted, Vinales took part in opening practice for the US MotoGP before deciding to withdraw from the remainder of the weekend.
“Actually, with the track layout, I could see very clearly,” he said. “In the other tracks, maybe it was just one place, two places that I was suffering, but [at COTA] it’s everywhere.
“So it was better to stop and recover, because I also spoke quite a lot with Dr Charte, and he said you can make a big mess if you crash on this shoulder again [without removing the screw].”
Vinales underwent surgery a few days later and now has until the end of the month to recover in time for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez from 24-26 April.
While Vinales was absent, team-mate Enea Bastianini took Tech3’s first top three of the season in the COTA Sprint, following a post-race penalty for factory KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
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Maverick Vinales believes a Sepang testing crash may have triggered the ‘displaced screw’ in his shoulder.
When Maverick Vinales landed on his left shoulder on the final day of February’s Sepang pre-season MotoGP test, the Tech3 KTM rider was confident it proved his injury woes were finally behind him.
“I tested the shoulder well. I landed [with it] on the ground!” Vinales said. “It was the best test I could do. And the shoulder is perfect. So for me it’s totally healed.”
But with hindsight, that impact is suspected of causing a screw inserted after last July’s Sachsenring crash to loosen.
“It’s hard to understand. The doctors said maybe in the last corner crash in Malaysia, the screw moved a little bit, and then little by little it started to come out,” Vinales said at COTA.
“During the winter, the shoulder was quite good. Every week, I was feeling better and without pain.
“In Sepang, I also felt good. So it’s not that you crash, and it came out there and then.
“I think little by little it came out, until the point that I said, ‘OK, something is not normal here, so I need to check’.”
That moment came after round two in Brazil, where Vinales again failed to score points.
“Even if the bike is bad or not, I cannot be at that level; this is not normal for me,” he said.
“So I did a CT scan on Thursday [before COTA].”
Despite the ‘displaced screw’ being spotted, Vinales took part in opening practice for the US MotoGP before deciding to withdraw from the remainder of the weekend.
“Actually, with the track layout, I could see very clearly,” he said. “In the other tracks, maybe it was just one place, two places that I was suffering, but [at COTA] it’s everywhere.
“So it was better to stop and recover, because I also spoke quite a lot with Dr Charte, and he said you can make a big mess if you crash on this shoulder again [without removing the screw].”
Vinales underwent surgery a few days later and now has until the end of the month to recover in time for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez from 24-26 April.
While Vinales was absent, team-mate Enea Bastianini took Tech3’s first top three of the season in the COTA Sprint, following a post-race penalty for factory KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
When Maverick Vinales landed on his left shoulder on the final day of February’s Sepang pre-season MotoGP test, the Tech3 KTM rider was confident it proved his injury woes were finally behind him.
“I tested the shoulder well. I landed [with it] on the ground!” Vinales said. “It was the best test I could do. And the shoulder is perfect. So for me it’s totally healed.”
But with hindsight, that impact is suspected of causing a screw inserted after last July’s Sachsenring crash to loosen.
“It’s hard to understand. The doctors said maybe in the last corner crash in Malaysia, the screw moved a little bit, and then little by little it started to come out,” Vinales said at COTA.
“During the winter, the shoulder was quite good. Every week, I was feeling better and without pain.
“In Sepang, I also felt good. So it’s not that you crash, and it came out there and then.
“I think little by little it came out, until the point that I said, ‘OK, something is not normal here, so I need to check’.”
That moment came after round two in Brazil, where Vinales again failed to score points.
“Even if the bike is bad or not, I cannot be at that level; this is not normal for me,” he said.
“So I did a CT scan on Thursday [before COTA].”
Despite the ‘displaced screw’ being spotted, Vinales took part in opening practice for the US MotoGP before deciding to withdraw from the remainder of the weekend.
“Actually, with the track layout, I could see very clearly,” he said. “In the other tracks, maybe it was just one place, two places that I was suffering, but [at COTA] it’s everywhere.
“So it was better to stop and recover, because I also spoke quite a lot with Dr Charte, and he said you can make a big mess if you crash on this shoulder again [without removing the screw].”
Vinales underwent surgery a few days later and now has until the end of the month to recover in time for the Spanish MotoGP at Jerez from 24-26 April.
While Vinales was absent, team-mate Enea Bastianini took Tech3’s first top three of the season in the COTA Sprint, following a post-race penalty for factory KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
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