Pedrosa plans to ride without painkillers

The Spaniard struggled throughout the Catalunya weekend after damaging his hip in the previous race at Mugello, and exacerbating the pain with crashes in the Italian race and in qualifying in Spain.

He sat out the post-race Catalunya test and says he now feels ready to compete at Assen.

"Since the race in Barcelona I've basically been resting, trying to give my hip as much chance to improve as possible," said Pedrosa.

"Obviously there hasn't been a lot of time - just over one week - but I certainly feel a lot better now than immediately after the last race when I was totally exhausted."

The Honda rider feels he will be better off trying to compete without the painkillers he used at Mugello and Barcelona.

"I'm feeling positive about the weekend and we'll just have to see how it goes when riding starts on Thursday," Pedrosa said.

"My intention would be to ride without receiving any painkilling injections because gradually they lose their effectiveness and they are not something I want to rely on - we'll see how the feeling is when I start to ride."

Prior to the latest injury Pedrosa was a title contender, as despite having not yet won in 2009 and having been hampered by constant physical problems for almost a year, he was within nine points of the championship lead four rounds into the season.

But the hip drama has been a major blow to his title hopes as he has now slipped to fifth in the standings, behind his Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, and 39 points away from the leaders.