MotoGP: John Hopkins confident in fitness battle

American John Hopkins is confident that he will have no problems riding at 100 per cent in the season’s opening race in Qatar, even though the Kawasaki rider concedes he will be below full fitness.

Hopkins admits he will still be hampered by a torn abductor muscle connecting his left leg and hip following a 100mph high-side during testing last month at Phillip Island.

John Hopkins braved the pain to ride during the IRTA test in Jerez earlier this month, and did so again in Qatar last week for the two-day session under floodlights.

Hopkins, who reckons he is still two months away from a complete recovery, told MCN: “I’ll be ready for the first race.

“Once the race comes the adrenaline takes over and you forget about hitting the pain barrier.

“It will be painful still but the adrenaline that takes over will help me ride through it.”

Asked when he thought he might be able to ride his factory ZX-RR without any hindrance from the torn muscle, he added: “To be pain free the doctors say up to three months.

“The problem is with tendon and groin injuries they are quite severe and take a lot of time to recover.

“I didn’t go through with surgery even though it would have made it stronger.

“The leg would have got stronger but the trauma that my body would go through during surgery would make the overall recovery time around the same time.

“I opted to miss surgery just because of that.”