ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Aug 17, 2009 (AFP) – Australian sprinter Robbie McEwen has been forced to pull out of his competitive comeback race, the Eneco Tour, after feeling pain in his knee, his Katusha team announced Monday.

McEwen suffered several injuries, including a fractured tibia, in a crash on the Tour of Belgium at the end of May.

But despite hoping to make a comeback in a bid to save his season the 12-time Tour de France stage winner has been advised to wait.

“Doctors can’t guarantee him that his knee will support the intense, repetitive efforts of racing,” one of his team managers, Bart Leysen, said.

McEwen has competed in recent weeks, finishing second in a post-Tour de France criterium in Aalst, won by Britain’s Mark Cavendish.

A day later he finished eighth in the Diksmuide criterium, and on August 5 was third in the Dernycriterium in Antwerp.

The eight-day Eneco Tour, now in its fifth year, begins with an opening prologue over 4.4 km in Rotterdam then rides over the Netherlands and Belgium before ending with a 13.1km time trial on stage seven on August 25.