SHEFFIELD will be without their top three riders for Thursday’s (August 13, 7.30pm) visit to Leicester.
The Tigers remain without broken arm victim Jack Holder at No.1 - but older brother Chris will now also miss the meeting having been called up to fulfil Polish Second Division commitments with Ostrow.
In addition, captain Josh Pickering has also been ruled out after aggravating knocks sustained in the first leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership R2 clash against the Lions at Owlerton last Thursday.
With Ipswich and King’s Lynn the only two sides not racing on Thursday, and a number of other riders required elsewhere in Poland, Sheffield have called upon Richard Lawson and Tom Brennan to guest with Rider Replacement in operation at No.5.
Tigers’ Team Manager Simon Stead said: “Firstly, I fully understand the frustration and disappointment of our supporters to be going into a league fixture without our three heat-leaders - even more so at this stage of the season.
“We’ve got one long-term injury that we’ve tried looking at alternatives for over a period of time and nothing has come of the approaches we’ve made, Picko is feeling battered and bruised and has been advised to take a few more meetings off and the situation with Chris being called up by Poland is one of the most annoying on a British Premiership racenight - but this was one date we were aware of that could be a potential issue in the build-up right from the off.
“People will have their opinions on whether they think the fixture should go ahead in such circumstances - but, unfortunately, there’s not much we can do.
“All we can do, is tackle the task to the best of our ability and go there and give it our best shot.
“In some ways, when you consider the limited options that were there for us, we’ve been extremely fortunate to have two solid riders in Richard Lawson and Tom Brennan available.
“Richard had a real good couple of years around Leicester and Tom is more than capable of beating anyone in any given race.
“The rest of our lads will want to have their say and do the supporters proud as much as they can as well.
“Leicester will fancy their chances with our far from ideal team situation I’m sure, but as ever we’ll be going there to give it a real good go and at the end of the day, it’s another opportunity to add to our tally.”
Leon Flint will be the stand in captain for the night as the Tigers lead 57-33 on aggregate.
Leicester use Kevin Juhl Pedersen as a guest for former Sheffield stalwart Kyle Howarth who has taken a break from the sport.
Anyone unable to make the trip to the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park can stream the action via https://www.leicesterlionstv.com
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Drew Kemp, Nick Morris, Dan Thompson, Sam Masters, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Joe Thompson. SHEFFIELD: Richard Lawson, Anders Rowe, Tom Brennan, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering R/R, Jye Etheridge, Luke Killeen.
