Kenan Sofuoglu will be forced to sit out of the first pre-season test of 2017, which starts tomorrow at the Circuit de Jerez. The current Supersport World Champion suffered a crash on Sunday morning during Supermotard training at a private circuit in Turkey, and fractured his right wrist.

Team manager Manuel Puccetti has since announced Sofuoglu will not undergo surgery on his right wrist ahead of Round One at Phillip Island after being examined by Italian doctors once the inflammation went down.

He explained to WorldSBK.com: “Kenan doesn’t want to have the operation and the doctors have said his wrist will be okay without it. He will travel directly to Phillip Island, but we know that Kenan has an incredible amount of experience, and a big talent so I hope this will be enough for him to have a good race there”

The accident, which occurred just two days before the start of preseason testing, is an obvious setback for the Kawasaki Pucetti Racing Team. The 2016 team champions will appear at the Andalusian track this week, with Briton Kyle Ryde as their only rider.

Team owner Manuel Puccetti continued: "Kenan was training with Toprak (Razgatlioglu) at his private Supermoto circuit in Turkey on Sunday. It was very cold and after a couple of laps he lost the front end and crashed. He came down hard on the asphalt and broke a bone in his right hand - a little bone around the scaphoid. He will have an x-ray on the hand and in two days we will know whether or not he will require an operation.

This means he misses the Jerez and Portimao tests for sure. Whatever happens, he will definitely travel to Australia with the hope of racing; for now it’s too early so say whether he will be able to. If Kenan didn’t ride, we would for sure have to find a replacement to ride his bike – and for that I would need to speak with Kawasaki Europe to understand who could replace him. At the moment it is still very early and of course we hope Kenan will be able to race."