Rhapsody Guitarist Suffers Serious Hand Injury, Cannot Tour

Dominique Leurquin, guitarist of the Italian metal band Luca Turilli's Rhapsody, has suffered a serious hand injury.

Rhapsody mastermind Luca Turilli has chosen to let the public know about Leurquin's condition in light of the band's upcoming European tour.

"Some days ago my girlfriend Nadia received a phone call from Laurence, the wife of Dominique," said Turilli through in a statement released by his publicist. "I understood from Nadia's tears that something terrible just happened... 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..."

Adds the band:

"Dominique injured himself with a circular saw while working at home. All it took was one wrong move and the saw reached the center of his hand. After the complicated surgery and everyone thinking it will be difficult for Dominique to play his beloved instrument once again, the doctors shared some optimistic words, speaking of 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 the music represents for Dominique and so there is no doubt he will do miracles in this sense.

"All the members of Rhapsody were just shocked over all that happened and of course these last days were not that easy for anyone, 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 a lower volume mixed on the right side, as if he would be there."

Leurquin has been a member of Luca Turilli's Rhapsody since 2011. The group released an album entitled Ascending to Infinity earlier this year.

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