A year older he may, but Valentino Rossi insists preparation for his 23rd season in grand prix racing has been no more tough or trying than the past “six or seven years.”

On Wednesday the 38-year old admitted staying in competitive shape is a good deal more difficult than ten to 15 years ago, when recovery time was less, but feels maintaining peak fitness should be no more difficult than since he turned 32 in 2011.

The Italian, who will use preseason testing - and possibly the first three races of the year - to gauge his competitiveness before deciding to sign a contract extension, also revealed he plans to have the pin in his right leg removed once racing ceases at the end of 2018.

Rossi spent part of his winter skiing and snowboarding, showing the right leg he broke last September to be in good shape, but said he still feels pain “after one or two minutes” of running.

This, however, is expected, and Rossi feels he will be able to carry out physical exercise as normal in a month’s time. “For the bike, I’m OK,” he said.

“I want to say every year is more difficult, because I'm not very young,” Rossi said of his preparations for 2018. “But in reality, in the last six or seven years, I feel very similar. [It’s] Different to when I was twenty or twenty five, because it was more easy to recover, especially. So [there is a] longer recovery time.

“But in reality, I feel very similar in the physical condition. You have to work hard but I think that our sport is not the most important thing. You have to be fit, for sure, but you also have to have something else. I think that in the last years, the level is more or less the same.”

Rossi made a remarkable recovery from the leg break that prematurely ended his title bid in 2017, prompting a nomination for the Laureus ‘Comeback of the Year’ award after returning to race just 24 days on from an innocuous enduro training accident.

That same right leg is “very good,” according to the nine-time world champion, even though the pin inserted soon after the crash is still present. “You know, it’s there,” he said, “but there’s no difference.”

“[The] Leg is very good. I was able also to go with the snowboard and ski a bit. But I'm not at 100%, I still feel pain and I have to modify a little bit my training, because I cannot run, still.

“In the last two weeks, I started to run a little bit, but after one or two minutes, I have to slow down because I have pain. Usually, you need six months to recover the strength of the tibia, so I think that I have another month, month and a half before I can start to run again. But for the rest, I'm OK, for the bike I'm OK.

“The problem for take out the pin is at the end of the season. Because you have to keep the pin in for a minimum of one year. So it was September, and I think that this year I will race like this, and I will the surgery after the season. But it's not a big problem, because I don't feel anything. You know that it's there, but there's no difference.”