Aussie champ Troy Corser’s 2009 campaign got off to a promising start when he set the fastest lap at Philip Island, but since then it’s been a grind for the Wollongong rider, who’s found himself battling mid-pack with riders who were once cannon fodder for the two-time world champion.

And to make matters worse, Corser recently found out he partially dislocated a shoulder in the sickening crash at Monza on May 10, which has been causing him trouble ever since.

After some intensive physiotherapy, Corser’s condition is now improving, and he’s looking forward to beginning a salvage operation at Misano, on Italy’s sun-kissed Adriatic Riviera.

“It’s good I found out that there was a problem with my shoulder because I had the feeling something was wrong – especially as I couldn’t lift my right arm above my shoulder,” said Corser. “I’m not sure if it was fully dislocated or what, but I do know that it wasn’t in the right place.

“When the doc started manipulating it, he told me that putting it back in the right place might be a painful, and he was right!

“It’s been good for the team to get the bikes back to the workshops and look at all the information from South Africa and USA. I am sure they will have some ideas about which direction we should take at Misano and I think we will start improving again and the results will follow.”

Corser and his teammate Ruben Xaus are the only riders who have won at Misano before, and the Aussie’s best result in 2008 came at the 4.226km circuit when he finished a close second to Germany’s Max Neukirchner in race one.

Corser is also the lap record holder around Misano, but that could be broken on Sunday if the conditions are fine.

The most likely lap record-shredding candidates are championship leader Noriyuki Haga (Ducati), American Ben Spies (Yamaha) and Italy’s Michel Fabrizio, who have been the three standouts in 2009. The hard-working Jonathan Rea (Honda) is also making an audacious bid to join the top brass, while Max Biaggi has performed above expectations on the all-new Aprilia V-four.

Between them, Haga and Spies have won 13 of the 14 races in 2009, with Fabrizio (Ducati) chipping in with his first-ever win at Monza.

With Imola absent from the calendar in the last few years, Misano has become the de-facto ‘home’ race for Ducati – at the same time being a bogey track for Haga, who only has a pedestrian return of three podiums in 18 appearances.

“The Misano track is very small and tricky with high-speed corners that require aggressive braking,” said Haga. “I prefer the new layout, but it remains nonetheless a difficult track for me, I don’t really know why. It's always so hot there too, so the tyre choice really comes into play.

“After a crash and the less than perfect results at the last round of Salt Lake, I plan to be back on form and fighting to win at Misano.”

While Haga’s results in America were sabotaged by injury and ordinary form, Spies was the antithesis as he took his second clean sweep of the year in another vintage performance.

After such a trailblazing season, there is already talk of Spies going MotoGP racing in 2010, but for now another strong result Misano will put even more pressure on Haga.

Australians Brendan Roberts and Karl Muggeridge will both sit out Misano with injury, leaving only Broc Parkes (Kawasaki) and Corser to uphold local honour against the internationals.

Parkes has now fully recovered from his own recent injury woes, and will be hoping to repeat his top 10 finish in America with an improved qualifying and race pace.

WORLD SUPERSPORT..ANDREW PITT’S 2009 TITLE HOPES FADING

In supersport, Andrew Pitt’s chances of retaining his world title are hanging by a thread, but he has the chance to exorcise some recent set-up demons on his Honda and return to his front-running ways on Sunday.

“Misano’s been good to me in the past – in both directions – so I’m looking forward to getting back there,” said Pitt. “It’s going to be hot and hopefully that will be where all the training and all the kilometres on the bicycle pay off.

“Acceleration out of corners is something we still need to work on with the bike, but it’s been making real progress lately and that showed in America, despite the problem in qualifying. We need a little bit of luck on our side now and only race wins will do, so that’s what we’ll be aiming for from here on in.”

Pitt, who won at Misano in 2008, is equal fifth in the championship, and way behind runaway leaders Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha), Eugene Laverty (Honda) and his teammate Kenan Sofuoglu.

Superbike standings (after round 7 of 14):

Current supersport standings (after round 7 of 13)