Luca Turilli's Rhapsody's guitarist Dominique Leurquin has injured himself on his hand with a circular saw. He won't be able to play on the band's upcoming tour.

Official statement from the band: "Around two weeks ago the members of Rhapsody lived one of the most dramatic moments of their career and they finally want to reveal to everybody the difficult moment they had to face because of what recently happened to their guitar player Dominique Leurquin."

"Some days ago my girlfriend Nadia received a phone call from Laurence, the wife of Dominique. I understood from Nadia's tears that something terrible just happened..." says Luca Turilli. And adds: "A river of blood and then the dramatic run to the hospital with Dominique almost dying for all the blood he shed. Three hours of surgery and the risk to lose the left hand definitely. I could simply not believe it..."

"Dominique injured himself with a circular saw while working at home. One wrong movement and the saw reached the center of his hand. After the complicated surgery and everyone around thinking it will be difficult for Dominique to play his beloved instrument once again, the doctors spent some more optimistic words to describe the situation, speaking about a long period of rehabilitation and some major problems eventually related to the thumb only. Therefore it seems there will be again the possibility for Dominique to play a guitar, and maybe sooner than what can be expected. What is needed is a lot of strength and mind power but everybody knows what represents the music for Dominique and so there is no doubt he will do miracles in this sense."

"All the members of Rhapsody were just shocked for all what happened and of course the last days were not that easy for anyone of them, for the stress due to the tragic fact and for the problems related with the tour preparation. Right in relation with the upcoming tour, an important decision was taken: the one of not replacing Dominique with another guitar player but instead, as Luca arranged all the Rhapsody songs for two guitars, to simply add Dominique's parts on the backing tracks at lower volume. Mixed on the right side, as if he would be there!"

The bass player Patrice Guers stated: "Dominique for us is more than friend. He is a real brother and everybody knows how important was for him this first tour as official member of Rhapsody. It is just not possible to replace him and we won't do it! When Luca communicated this to Dominique, he almost shed some tears for the happiness, so much he appreciated this decision..."

The new drummer Alex Landenburg added: "No matter if it will take six months or one year to have Dominique back with us on stage. What is sure is that we'll wait for him as he is a fundamental member of our band. Surely won't be the same to go on stage without him!"

The singer Alessandro Conti goes on: "Every show of this tour will be dedicated to our brother. I know Dominique since some months only but I can tell you that I already love him for his talent and for being a man of great value."

"Luca Turilli's Rhapsody want to add that, due to the recent events and despite all the other band plans won't be changed, the release of the new cinematic ballad Fantasia Gotica will be postponed after the tour. The new video of Clash Of The Titans in its Walking Dead remix version, instead, should be released next week as planned. In any case it is a matter of days."

Source:	facebook.com
Band profile:	Luca Turilli's Rhapsody