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Spies' injury woes not over

No substitute for Spies in Spain

Ben Spies' injury woes are not over yet as the Pramac Ducati rider suffered "a few spasms" following a minor crash in Malaysia. The Texan, who was forced to miss the final two races of last season after he picked up shoulder, rib and lung injuries at Sepang, made his 2013 pre-season testing debut at the same circuit earlier this week, but he aggravated his shoulder injury during a tumble and was in discomfort after that. "I made a small mistake yesterday which dug my elbow into the ground," he said. "It was an easy crash but it upset my back and shoulder a little bit, so I had a few spasms yesterday and couldn't do a whole lot of riding." The 28-year-old was well off the pace on the first two days at Sepang, finishing 13th, 17th and 14th respectively on the three days while his team-mate Andrea Iannone didn't fare much better. Spies, though, has just one goal at the moment and that is to regain full fitness. "Anybody in our shoes would obviously like to be a little higher up the timesheets," he said. "Today we rebounded a little bit and got to put some laps in, but had a couple of little problems with the bike and lost the last hour. "All in all, it wasn't too bad and our quickest lap was actually set on old tyres - so that was good - but we'd like to be faster. "For me right now, I just want to get back to 100 per cent fitness and get used to the bike."