William Dunlop has withdrawn from the TT.

The Northern Irishman said this morning: ’This is a very difficult decision and not one I have taken lightly, I can only apologise to the team and all of our sponsors but I believe that continuing would be the wrong decision and would not give a true account of either myself or the team.’

Dunlop, who has been a regular at the event since making his debut in 2006, had been struggling with a back injury after he crashed during the first Superstock race at the recent North West 200.

Dunlop had taken part in two evenings of practice and clocked a lap of 125.197mph on his Yamaha Superbike last night (Monday).