Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner has been ruled out of the final two rounds of the Superbike World Championship, with lingering injuries to his back forcing him to sit out the Magny-Cours and Portimao rounds of the series.

The German is now working straight towards his return at the Portimao post-seas test, where he will have the possibility to test the completely revised Suzuki GSX-R 1000, which Suzuki engineers from Japan and the Alstare engineers are developing for on the 2010 season.

“Of course I am very disappointed. I really wanted to step in again on the race events this season, this would have been very important for me. Even now where we are already about to sort out a lot at the bike for the next year,” Neukirchner said. “Logically the doctors don’t want to take any risk. Of course I can understand this and finally it’s all about my health. The healing process is going well and I feel better from day to day!”

A replacement rider is yet to be announced.