Davide Giugliano could be ruled out of the season-opening race weekend of the WorldSBK season this weekend, having crashed heavily in pre-season testing on Monday. The incident occurred just minutes into Monday’s afternoon session as the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike Team rider highsided on the exit of Turn 11

‘Having taken a blow to the lumbar region of his back, the doctors at the medical centre decided to transfer him to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne to carry out a CAT scan,’ a team press release reads.

‘Unfortunately the scan has revealed two small fractures of the L1 and L2 vertebrae, not serious but which may prevent Davide from competing this coming weekend. Tomorrow (Tuesday) a specialist at Alfred Hospital will see Giugliano to make a decision and determine the length of the Italian rider’s recovery period.’

Commenting later in the day, the rider was understandably frustrated.

“I’m very upset about this afternoon’s crash because things had been going very well,” Giugliano said. “I had good feeling with the bike by the end of session one and I was able to lap with consistently fast times. It was a bad fall and this evening’s CAT has unfortunately revealed two tiny fractures, so I’m really worried that this might compromise my first races of the 2015 season.”

In the meantime, team-mate Chaz Davies continues testing on Tuesday.