Ducati’s Cal Crutchlow will have an operation to remove the metalwork from his shoulder straight after the last MotoGP round at Valencia so he has enough time to recover before testing begins at Sepang.

The British rider says he needs to get the plate on his collarbone removed so it doesn’t get knitted into the bone and so he can do some more work on relieving the arthritis that is causing problems in low temperatures.

“I have to have an operation, sure. I will have it immediately after the last race. I need to take the plate out of the collarbone,” said Crutchlow, speaking at Misano.

“It’s not a big issue, taking the metalwork out is a good thing but as we know in the cold conditions, I get the problem with the arthritis but also the pain from the metal in the body, so I think it’s best to have it out.

“I don’t want to leave it too long as it gets stuck to the body. It’s not a major operation and I should be back on a motorbike in four weeks.”