Warwick has spent the last month in Australia preparing for the World Enduranc season finale but on Saturday he took a serious fall whilst training on his motocross bike. After three hours of riding, and towards the end of the day, Warwick crashed suffering concussion, abrasions, ligament damage and a broken scaphoid.

At 9:00am on Monday morning Sydney’s leading orthopaedic surgeon for hand injuries, Dr David Yee, diagnosed the extent of the injury and scheduled surgery for the week after the race in Qatar.

Nowland: “As you can imagine, I’m really upset, more so for my team than myself. I’ve moved out of the UK after eight years and life couldn’t be better back here in Australia. I’ve been able to focus on being a racer again instead of doing too many other things. The month of October has been great to get my body back in shape and get a platform for next year.

"Saturday was my last motocross ride before I left for the race. I had been on my motocross bike every week since returning to Australia and my body was getting back into a rhythm. The timing is unfortunate but my motivation is re-born. I haven’t felt this way since trying to retain my title in 2003”.

First Vincent Philippe, now Warwick Nowland: Who'll be next to crash out of the Qatar race before it's even started?