Hunter Lawrence has been ruled out of this weekend’s 11th round of the 2017 MX2 World Championship in Italy after sustaining a compressed vertebrae while racing in Germany.

After initially expecting to contest the 24 June event following the incident, the Team Suzuki World MX2 rider, who currently sits eighth overall in points, confirmed this week that the injury is too severe to line up and race at this point in time.

“I will be sitting out the MXGP in Ottobiano as I had a crash when racing the ADAC Championship in Germany,” said Lawrence. “I thought I was ok afterwards and thought I’d be good enough for the weekend but I’ve since found out that I suffered a compressed vertebrae and it’s too serious for me to consider lining up for the MXGP.”

The MX2 rookie, who now bases himself out of Europe full-time, will turn his sole focus to recovering from the untimely injury in a bid to return to the world championship circuit hastily.

“I didn’t feel like I was anywhere close to my limit when I crashed, it was just one of those unfortunate things,” he added. “Now I’m just going to concentrate on my recovery so I can be back behind the starting gate as soon as possible.”

Lawrence’s best MX2 World Championship finish to date came at Teutschenthal in Germany where he claimed second overall for the day behind teammate Jeremy Seewer.