Haslam overcomes pain to chase title

Leon Haslam will ride through the pain barrier at Imola this weekend as he attempts to keep alive his slim hopes of winning the World Superbike Championship.

The Derbyshire rider trails Italian rival Max Biaggi by 58 points with two rounds and four races left this season, meaning there are 100 points still up for grabs. However, the Briton suffered injuries to his knee and hand in a crash in race one last time out in Germany, and has been undergoing physiotherapy in an attempt to be ready for this weekend's round in Italy.

"Since the last round at the Nurburgring, I have been having a lot of physiotherapy on my knee," the Alstare Suzuki rider said. "The problem is that ligaments take quite a long time to mend properly and because of that my knee is not up to full strength yet. I haven't got full movement and all the power back yet, but I hope it's not going to affect me too much once I am on the bike."