Australian MotoGP star Jack Miller jokes that when his racing career is over he'll be able to pull off being a pro surfer who has survived a shark attack given the bite-sized wound on his leg.
Miller had a plate and eight screws inserted following a crash just over two weeks ago but says the injury won't be enough to keep him from this weekend's home GP at Phillip Island.
The 22-year-old missed last week's Japanese GP and still hasn't been back on his motorcycle, restricted to clocking kilometres on the pedal variety.
"The leg's alright, it's still working," said the Queenslander, who will switch from Honda to Ducati in 2018.
"I've been doing rehab to try to get it in the best shape I can and also cycling to have the motion and strength to ride the Moto GP bike.
"Last week at home in Townsville I did 230 kilometres on a push-bike so it's not too bad."
Miller, who finished 10th last year, said he wasn't sure how the injuries would stand up to the rigours of the 120.1km race over the 4.4km island circuit.
"It's always hard to say until you ride the bike in terms of flexibility, also over the race distance - it's a long race, many laps - in terms of swelling we'll see how we go but my feeling is that it should be alright," he said.
Rain is predicted for Sunday's race which suits Miller just fine. His sole MotoGP title came in the wet at the Dutch GP at Assen last year.
He won the Moto3 at Phillip Island in 2014 as well as the Open Class race in 2015.
"It's saying it's going to be wet and cold which is typical Phillip Island weather at this time of year but as we know I don't mind a bit of wet weather," he said.
"Every year we've come here we've gone pretty good and last year we were top 10 and fighting for a top six position.
"This year I feel stronger despite the injury and I think we'll be able to do an even better job."
With three races left in the 2017 season, Miller is 13th in championship standings with two sixth-place finishes his best results.
Spanish ace Marc Marquez is the championship leader.
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