World Superbike veteran Gregorio Lavilla will replace injured rider Brendan Roberts for the Kyalami World Superbike round this weekend after the Australian knocked himself about in the first race crash.

Although Roberts was taken to hospital, he suffered nothing worse than cuts and bruises but his Guandalini team are replacing him with the Spaniard just in case, according to the team website.

Lavilla has been riding for the team, which is managed by Pier-Francesco Chili, in the Italian Superbike Championship recently and had been vaunted as a replacement for Roberts if his results did not improve.