Julien Alaphilippe's troubles continue, with the two-time world champion's Ardennes Classics campaign further hampered by a knee injury suffered in the Tour of Flanders.

Alaphilippe will miss this Sunday's Amstel Gold race and next Wednesday's La Fleche Wallonne, his team confirmed to Cycling News.

The former world champion's participation in Liège-Bastogne-Liège (the fourth monument of the season and final spring classic) is currently undecided.

Alaphilippe had a difficult 2022 season, suffering from a crash, COVID-19, and illness. His 2023 season is proceeding with a similar theme.

He was plagued by physical problems in the cobbled classics, his first major goal of the season, the Tour de Flanders, was below his best time, and a crash in the Ardennes threw his campaign into disarray.

The Soudal-Quick Step team boss stated in Paris-Roubaix on Sunday that Alaphilippe is "still in a miserable state" due to his knee and will miss the Amstel Gold race.

The team then decided that he would miss La Flèche Wallonne, which he has won three times. A decision on Liège-Bastogne-Liège will be made next week.

Alaphilippe has resumed training again, but his participation in La Doyenne, where he is a three-time winner, is in doubt.

Alaphilippe finished second in his debut in 2015, but since then this race has not been his happiest stage: a knee injury in the Ardennes in 2017 put him out of contention, a big crash last year, a loss to Tadei Pogachar in 2021, and most famously in 2020 in 2021, and was defeated by Primoz Roglic, although he ran across the finish line, and was subsequently relegated due to an illegal act.

Even if Alaphilippe does not run next Sunday, Soudal-Quick Step still has Remco Evenpoel, who single-handedly won his first Monument title 12 months ago.

Evenepoel will defend his Liege title in preparation for the Giro d'Italia with a UAE Tour win, second in the Volta a Catalunya, and a series of high-altitude training camps.

Reports that Evenpoel will parachute into the Amstel Gold Race this Sunday have proved unfounded.

Similar hype was generated just prior to the Tour de Flanders, with Evenpoel teasing fans via social media before boarding a plane to Tenerife, where he has been training since early April with his teammates for the Giro.

Soudal Quickstep will also be without Mauri Vansevenan due to a knee injury, with Andrea Bazioli and Mauro Schmid leading the charge in Amstel and Flèche.