Stoner battling illness

Ducati is praying for a 'miracle' as it continues to seek treatment for a mystery illness that threatens former world champion Casey Stoner's 2009 MotoGP campaign.

For the second race in succession, Stoner was left physically exhausted after finishing third at Assen last weekend behind championship rivals Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.

On this occasion, however, Ducati reported Stoner was even more run down than at Catalunya and was unable to attend the post-race press conference.

The team is putting its faith in Clinica Mobile, the medical back-up squad for riders in the championship, to find out what is wrong with the 23-year-old as attention turns to Laguna Seca for this weekend's MotoGP.

"There is something wrong with Casey's condition and we are trying to understand what is wrong and trying to help," Ducati's MotoGP Project Director Livio Suppo told motogp.com after the race in the Netherlands.

"What we have done so far is not enough and we have to investigate more. Dr Claudio Macchiagodena from Clinica Mobile has done a lot to help after the race and he has some ideas for Laguna so let's just hope."

In a statement released by Ducati, Stoner was quoted as saying his health had progressively worsened over the weekend.

"I've been feeling fine all week but started to feel run down again on Friday and I've just got worse as the weekend has gone on. I've taken every kind of supplement and vitamin tablet you can think of but nothing seems to have worked, so it is obviously something we need to have looked at closer because I can't keep going like this and it is costing us points," he said.

"Thankfully I had a fantastic bike underneath me again today and I owe the team for that."

"Unfortunately we don't have much time to get fit for Laguna but we'll see what we can do."

Rossi leads the world championship by five points over his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo, with Stoner a further four points back in third place.