Image: Andrew Conway (ConwayMX).

Australia’s Caleb Ward is under an injury cloud following an unfortunate start to his rookie MX2 World Championship campaign in Qatar last weekend.

The 8Biano Racing Husqvarna rider injured his knee during timed qualifying to kick-off his weekend at the season-opener and it continued to go south from there for the Queenslander.

Suffering from the injury heavily during the qualifying race and failing to gain clearance to race either of the MX2 motos, Ward was forced to watch from the sidelines and begin the familiar recovery process.

“I tweaked my knee,” Ward told MotoOnline.com.au. “I’ve done it before but not for like two years so it’s hard to say how long it’ll take but it’s already feeling a lot better than it did on the weekend.”

It’s a race against the clock for the former Motul MX Nationals MX2 front-runner as he hopes for a speedy recovery ahead of this weekend’s Indonesian grand prix in Pangkal Pinang: “It’s still a bit swollen so hopefully that’s goes away in a day or so and it’s good to go before the weekend, but we’ll have to wait and see.”

Ward currently holds zero championship points following his round one injury with 18 rounds remaining on the lengthy world championship calendar. He will make the decision whether to ride in Indonesia or not closer to the round.