The excitement at Sachsenring on Thursday was high as Valentino Rossi attended the pre-event press conference ahead of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, with an enthusiastic crowd gathered and awaiting the World Champion’s appearance.

Desperate to get back to action and warmly welcomed by the MotoGP paddock after four races out with a fractured right tibia, Rossi declared: “I missed MotoGP a lot, especially my bike and my whole team!”

“Now I feel quite good after this bad injury. Everything after the crash went okay with the surgery, the doctors did a great job, and I worked every day to regain my fitness as soon as possible… I worked on my leg and my shoulder. It was difficult period but I feel quite good and I’m very happy to be able to try the bike tomorrow.”

Rossi added: “The big question mark is the entire race, 30 laps in a row. I have to wait and see what happens!”

The 31 year-old’s fellow riders were also delighted to see the charismatic Italian back. Fiat Yamaha team-mate and current Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo stated: “Valentino is the rider who has the most World titles, one of the riders who makes the show here. Everybody is happy at his comeback.”

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa added: “It’s a record, I think! I have been injured in the past and I can guarantee this is a super fast comeback! It’s always great to race against Valentino and as I said in the past when you race against someone as fast as him you always have to improve yourself.”

Casey Stoner was another star to express his happiness at seeing his fellow competitor make such a speedy return. The Ducati Team man said: “Definitely at first when I heard he was testing at Misano I thought it was really fast, but at the same time I’ve heard of people getting their collarbone plated and riding within a week, so there was always a possibility of him coming back here.”

“It will be hard for him of course, all of us know what injuries are like, but no doubt he will be fast. We saw his times from Brno and they were really impressive. Personally it will be really good to have him back.”