The Murcian, who took his first MotoGP victory during his rookie season last year at the challenging Mandalika circuit in Indonesia, broke his femur in a rather serious training accident, but has been in positive spirits as he begins his journey to recovery.

It was announced today that Aldeguer would remain absent for the opening round in Buriram, Thailand on 27 February - 1 March which does not come as a huge surprise.

The Spaniard already missed the Sepang test, but fortunately will have a longer window in which to recover after Thailand as the second Grand Prix will not take place until almost a whole month later in Brazil.

So far, no official replacement rider has been announced yet, but Gresini can draw on a number of Ducati talents including the likes of Michele Pirro to ensure that their development continues.

The team will still have their lead rider, Alex Marquez, at the helm. Alex was quickest in several of the pre-season testing sessions in Sepang and rumours are that he is looking for promotion to a factory seat in the near future.

Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi has expressed sorrow at the fact that the team did not sign Marc Marquez at an earlier time, stating that the team could have won many more championships with the Spaniard at the helm.

Despite being the dominant force at the top of MotoGP for nearly a decade now, Ducati's team boss expressed some regret that they have only managed to secure three world championships for the factory team since 2017.