It's almost three months since Markus Reiterberger suffered his spectacular highside crash in Misano at the start of Race 2, the incident seeing the German fracture vertebrae in what he calls the worst injury of his career so far. Sitting out the following round, 'Reiti' is now hoping to be back on track for his home race weekend at Lausitzring, for the upcoming Pirelli German Round as the WorldSBK summer break comes to an end.

"I feel pretty ok again," the German told WorldSBK.com. "Last Thursday I had another MRI scan in Rosenheim and then on Friday talked directly with the doctors. They are really happy with my recovery - it's been almost two and a half months and the bones are stable. The muscles and tendons are looking good and the swelling has gone, too. The only thing still hurting a bit is the bruising underneath the back, so in the lumbar region, in the coccygeal bone and the sacral bone, they are still hurting a little bit. But even those are getting better.”

Progress has been quick for the Althea BMW rider thanks in part to his dedication to the cause, getting back into a training regimen as soon as possible.

“After five weeks I could take off the bodice and since then I have been working hard in the gym again, together with my trainer. We are there two times a day: In the morning we do strength training and in the evening gymnastics, especially spinal and stretching exercises. And of course some stamina. Considering everything I’d say its going very well. I am also having some physiotherapy two, three times a week.  have almost no pain left. Only if I try to turn my upper body to 90 degrees. But I think we can fix that by next week!”

The Pirelli German Round is now just around the corner, set for the 16th-18th September.

“The most important thing is for everything to be stable – and that’s the case. I got the ok to ride by my medical team and we have sent the report to the Dorna, who are looking into it carefully. I will have another medical check-up at the track next Thursday and should get the final go ahead to ride at the Lausitzring. Until then I’ll simply continue with my program: physio, training, gymnastics and so on – and then I think I’ll be on a similar level to before and hope to get a good weekend together then.”

With Reiterberger soon to be back on track to race, the German has one last preparation in store:

“I've never had such a bad accident and such bad injuries before, that’s why I don’t know how I will feel when I jump back on the bike. That’s why we decided to do a test at Brno next week. I’ll be there together with my mechanic Wolfgang, my dad and an electronics engineer from BMW so I can ride myself more freely – and to see how I feel and in case something turns up - I'll have some time to react.”

First practice at the Lausitzring begins on Friday 16^th of September as direct entry to TISSOT-Superpole 2 is decided, before Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday 18th.