Dani Pedrosa is to seek urgent medical advice after suffering arm pump problems in Sunday's Qatar MotoGP.

During an unexpected open air statement in the Losail paddock, the Repsol Honda star - who had qualified second on the grid but dropped to sixth in the season-opening race - revealed that previous surgery to solve the loss of feeling and strength in his right forearm has not worked.

The concern now is that a further operation may actually make the problem worse. The big question - no questions were allowed from the media - is if Pedrosa will ride at the forthcoming Austin round.

“Basically in this race I had an arm pump issue,” Pedrosa began. “It's been now for completely one year. I start to have a lot of problems here [in 2014] so last year I struggled in every single race. I couldn't really perform well since then. My results have never been that good due to this fact.

“I've been trying all this time to fix it and to improve. It wasn't easy. I couldn't really get any good answers. I went through one surgery [after Jerez 2014]. It wasn't successful. I tried not to say in public which wasn't easy. Honda always knew about it.

“This winter I was travelling all around to get many different opinions from different doctors. Trying to know if I can have a new surgery for this championship. Fortunately all of the answers recommended not to have a surgery due to the risk of the surgery in that arm. I tried to follow this advice and work a lot in the non-aggressive [treatment].

“Which brings me back to today. We had this bad situation. I knew I wasn't feeling very well but anyway there was no other option for me. Now that the race is over and I can see that I cannot perform as I know I can, I have to decide to find a way to solve this problem.

“I cannot continue racing and performing this way. So my plan now is to try to fix my arm. I don't know exactly what exactly is going to be. Because as I said the doctors don't know what to do. I will try to get rid of this problem. The team knows about it.

No it wouldn't. Stoner is an amazing rider but people with attitude's like his aren't welcome. He can stay in retirement thanks.

Crutchlow's time to shine. He knows the bike.

Glad they didn't go for some second rang Japanese driver.

Ducati is having less fuel after their Qatar race

He knows the bike? He went from Yamaha to Ducatti and now only one race on a Honda.

Yeah well, he had tested and has a Factory bike. So the step shouldn't be that big. I don't expect him to beat Márquez, but a podium should be possible.