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MotoGP Australian GP

Lorenzo fears he won't recover in time for Phillip Island

After withdrawing from the Japanese Grand Prix, Jorge Lorenzo admits he struggles to imagine he will be able to ride in next week's MotoGP race at Phillip Island as well.

Jorge Lorenzo, Ducati Team

Lorenzo's initial injuries sustained in the Aragon Grand Prix were worsened by a Friday shunt in Thailand, forcing him to miss that race.

He was passed fit for Motegi but the Ducati rider was unsure that he would feel strong enough over the weekend.

Lorenzo eventually withdrew after completing two installation laps in FP1, and he says that racing at Phillip Island, which is just a week away, will also be difficult.

"I don't know about Phillip Island yet, because you never know what can you feel when I arrive there on Wednesday or Thursday," he said.

"But it's difficult to believe, [if] in 14 days [from Thailand to Japan] the injury didn't recover so well, that in six days it could recover so fast.

"It can happen and we are gonna make a magnetic resonance to understand even more closely what happened in all the injury and decide what to do, the only thing I will do now is rest, and wait for the body to [get better]."

Should Lorenzo not race at Phillip Island, Ducati test rider Michele Pirro would most likely be drafted in to replace him.

Lorenzo admitted that he may have forced training "a little bit too quick", which hindered his recovery.

"What I did is what I felt, and what I understand for different opinions after hearing different opinions," he said. "But probably maybe for this injury I push a little bit too quick.

"This maybe, I think, didn't make worse the injury but maybe slowed down the recovery."

Lorenzo said that the risk of making his injury worse as just as big a reason behind his withdrawal as the pain.

"I feel even worse than expected, I expected a lot of difficulties to ride but I feel very bad on braking because the body, the brain didn't allow me to push the left wrist in the braking so I wasn't quick," he admitted.

"Obviously I wasn't comfortable, [but] even if I felt safe on the bike, feeling if I wanted to push a little bit more, I could make a mistake and crash.

"It has no meaning [to race] like this, because on this track I could have my options to fight for the win [if I was fit]."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont

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