Team Sky’s Richie Porte has withdrawn from the Giro d’Italia to recuperate for his support of Chris Froome in the Tour de France.

The Australian began the Giro with overall victory as the target, but his race has ended following a crash towards the end of Friday’s 13th stage to Jesolo.

Injuries to his knee and hip mean Porte has opted out of the race on its second rest day ahead of next Sunday’s conclusion in Milan.

“I’m gutted it’s ended this way,” Porte said on teamsky.com.

“The Giro has been my main goal this year and I’ve worked incredibly hard all season with this race in mind.”

Porte endured an incident-packed race and was well positioned in fourth place before incurring a two-minute time penalty for receiving a wheel change from fellow Australian Simon Clarke, of rival team Orica-GreenEdge.

“I’ve had a lot of back luck this week with the puncture and the time penalty, but it was the crash on Friday that has taken its toll,” Porte added.

“I fell heavily on my knee and hip which caused me a lot of pain on Saturday’s time trial and yesterday’s stage.

“I just wanted to keep trying and give it everything but now the medical team have advised me not to continue.”

Porte was unable to reel in the deficit from Friday’s crash in Saturday’s time-trial and now will focus on finding form and fitness to be Froome’s key lieutenant in the Tour, which begins on July 4 in Utrecht.

Porte added: “The plan for me now is to take some time off the bike, get the medical treatment that I need and reset my goals for the rest of the season and come back fighting. Hopefully I can get myself ready for the Tour team.”

Froome, Porte’s team-mate, friend and training partner from their Monaco base, wrote on Twitter: “We all face adversity at some point, it’s how you come back from it that counts! #ForzaRichie @richie_porte”.