Australia’s Chris Vermeulen has been ruled out of next weekend’s opening round of the Superbike World Championship.

The Queenslander has been fighting to recover from an agonising knee injury suffered at last year’s season opener, forcing him out of much of last season and now dashing his hopes to perform at home in 2011.

According to reports on Australian WSBK television broadcaster SPEED’s website, Vermeulen has failed a fitness test with Kawasaki this week, the team opting to abort the opening round for Vermeulen and instead focusing on the rehabilitation process of the former WSBK runner-up.

Vermeulen returned to testing for a number of laps at Sepang in Malaysia last month and was instantly up to speed, however swelling and pain in the knee forced him to return to Australia early in a bid to continue his healing process.

With ex-MotoGP race winner Vermeulen out, Kawasaki will now debut its factory Kawasaki ZX-10R in the hands of British standout Tom Sykes and Spanish rookie Joan Lascorz.

Aussie up and comers Bryan Staring and Mark Aitchison will form the Pedercini Kawasaki line-up alongside Italian veteran Roberto Rolfo.

An announcement regarding Vermeulen’s injury is expected from Kawasaki early next week.