Australian Matthew Glaetzer's Olympic preparations suffered another setback after he was ruled out of next week's UCI world track championships in Berlin due to a leg injury sustained in training last week.
The 2018 world sprint champion was left out of Cycling Australia's 17-member squad on Thursday, four months after he revealed he had undergone surgery for thyroid cancer.
Glaetzer, bidding to make a third Olympic appearance, would have competed in the individual sprint, keirin and team sprint events at the world championships.
Kelland O'Brien, a world champion in the team pursuit, was another late withdrawal from the squad as he continues his recovery from a broken collarbone sustained in January's Tour Down Under.
Thomas Cornish will replace Glaetzer for the team sprint, while Luke Plapp will take O'Brien's spot, with both riders making their senior world championship debuts.
The Feb. 26 to March 1 event in Berlin is an opportunity for track cycling heavyweights to lay down a marker ahead of the Tokyo Games.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru;Editing by Peter Rutherford)
