Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team’s Clement Desalle is recovering from surgery on his injured arm and will attempt to race this weekend’s opening MXGP round at the Losail Circuit in Qatar.

After a crash mid-February at the Valence International in France, Desalle underwent surgery by Doctor Claes in Belgium and after eight days of intensive therapy and rehab he has decided to travel to Qatar.

The plan is to enter the practice sessions and then decide if he can race or not at the first round of the world championship, on debut with KRT after switching from Suzuki at the end of last year.

“Of course we had long discussions with Clement and Doctor Claes,” explained KRT team manager François Lemariey. “Clement has a clean break, and Doctor Claes considers that it’s similar to a collarbone injury and he can recover faster than expected.

“He did some cycling this weekend and is working daily to recover. He will ride the practice sessions and, depending on how he feels and the results, we will then decide whether or not he will race the GP. There is no pressure on any parties, but we also don’t want to have any regrets later.

“If it’s possible for him to race safely, we just want to collect some important points for the series during the first two GPs – maybe these points will be important at the end of the championship.”

The team staff is already in Doha to prepare the KX450F-SR of the multiple series runner-up, while teammate Jordi Tixier is still recovering in Europe from his wrist injury.