Speedway: Sheffield Tigers' star Kyle Howarth aiming to put suspension behind him

The former British Under-21 served a brief suspension and returned to the Sheffield side in their home defeat at the hands of Redcar on Sunday.

He’s looking to bounce back with the rest of the side when they face Eastbourne in a massive Championship clash at Owlerton this Sunday.

Howarth was issued with a temporary ban after a random drugs test came back inconclusive prior to a guest booking for Edinburgh.

But a detailed analysis last week showing traces of co-codamol had caused the initial outcome – the medication prescribed to him to treat a racing injury.

Now Howarth is focussing on proving doubters wrong on track and is looking forward to a spell leading the Tigers.

“It was a terrible time for me and I had to do everything I could to stay away from social media,” said Howarth.

“I knew I had done nothing wrong but I was anxious constantly because pressure was building every day.

“It also underlined how many people actually care about me because I got so many messages of support.

“It wasn’t helped by the fact that some people reported I had failed a drugs test – I didn’t fail it, it came back inconclusive.”

Confusion surrounded the issue at Edinburgh on the night some people saying he should be allowed to race in the meeting and others not – in the end it was the referee who stopped him.

But he’s back racing and keen to put the entire episode behind him and help Sheffield in their play-off push.

Tigers bosses are looking at the possibility of beefing up their side with Broc Nicol now back home in America for surgery on his broken collarbone.

And there are concerns about the form of certain riders in their side after the weekend defeat which could see them wield the axe before the weekend.

Co-owner Damien Bates said: “It was disappointing to lose but we were beaten by the better side. We’ll continue to look at what options there may or may not be from here.”