Following his discharge from Melbourne's Cabrini Hospital, Loris Capirossi left Australia and after a flight lasting almost 28 hours, including 24 in the air, with stopovers at Dubai and Rome Fiumicino, finally landed at Rimini airport at 14.45 today, Monday 17 October. The Ducati Marlboro Team rider was immediately transferred to Imola hospital in an ambulance and will be personally assisted by Dr. Claudio Costa.

Clinica Mobile doctors had judged that Loris should return to Italy as soon as possible so that he could be assisted directly by Dr. Costa. However, without a chest drain, the internal bleeding around his right lung, caused in the spectacular crash at the end of Friday's free practice session, could have prevented him from flying for another 15-20 days. An eventual reopening of the unhealed injury during the flight could have caused the lung to come away from the wall and collapse.

Loris was permitted to return to Italy with a chest drain attached, which would have allowed the lung to remain in position in case of sudden cabin de-pressurization. The courageous Italian rider was accompanied during the return flight by Dr. Massimo Corbascio from the Clinica Mobile, who has been following racing for more than thirty years and who has considerable experience of this type of injury.

Capirossi will remain in Imola Hospital for at least four days, where he will be constantly kept under observation to avoid any complications that might prevent the injury from healing up correctly.

"The return flight went well, and that's good news" declared Claudio Costa, who was at Rimini airport to meet Loris and who organised his transfer to Imola, "considering the fact that it was the longest ever flight made by a rider with such a serious injury. Loris made a brave decision to return home with a chest drain attached instead of waiting a few more days. I was not worried however because I knew he was in the hands of expert and competent people. Loris will stay a few days at Imola, where we will try to prevent the development of any complications and help bring about a natural healing of the lung. Hopefully I can help to wipe out the sadness I can see in his eyes, a sadness caused by pain but also by the disappointment at seeing his season come to an early end. For sure we won't see him race in Turkey but I would like to think that, as he has done on other occasions, our courageous Loris can hope to return before time, in this case at Valencia".

"We have finally arrived in Italy and now I can try and recover as quickly as possible" said Loris, accompanied by his wife Ingrid, on landing at Rimini airport. "My return to Italy was perfectly organized by Ducati, and now I can't wait to remove the drainage tube, which is causing me a lot of bother, and begin the healing of the lung. I know I am in good hands and I would like to thank all the Clinica Mobile medical team, Dr. Corbascio, who accompanied me to Melbourne and throughout the flight home, and Dr. Costa, who was waiting at the airport ready to take me to hospital and organize my stay there. It was really a bad crash, probably the worst one of my career, but these things can happen. Only when I arrived at the hospital and when they started to tube me up, did I realize how serious it was: it was really painful. Of course I don't know when I will return to racing; if it were that simple, I'd remove everything and leave for Turkey immediately but it's too early to make plans".