The clock is ticking until Rossi will have to undergo surgery at the end of the season.

Italian MotoGP megastar Valentino Rossi is set to undergo surgery to rectify ongoing issues with his shoulder, which was damaged in a Motocross training incident earlier this year.

Rossi has been fighting to regain 100 percent fitness since returning from a broken leg suffered at the Mugello round of this year’s championship, however it’s his previous shoulder injury that has proven the ultimate cause for concern to date.

According to European sources, while at a Dainese event at Mugello this week, Rossi revealed to Italian television station Skye Italia that he will be going under the knife at the end of the season.

“The shoulder is still giving me problems and therefore at the end of season I shall have an operation,” said the 31-year-old eight-time world champion.

Rossi recently signed a lucrative two-year deal to join the Ducati Marlboro Team for the 2011 MotoGP World Championship, his surgery believed to be taking place during the Dorna-enforced testing ban before focusing on the development on the Desmosedici GP11 alongside new teammate Nicky Hayden early in the new year.