Speedway: Tobi Musielak to return against Sheffield with 'point to prove' but King's Lynn hit by injury blow

Sheffield Tigers boss Simon Stead fears former Tiger Tobi Musielak will arrive at Owlerton with King’s Lynn with a point to prove on Thursday.

But the visitors will be without one of their big names when the teams clash, after suffering an injury blow.

The Tru7Group Tigers are set to stage their first home meeting of the season against King’s Lynn, with Musielak - a Sheffield fans’ favourite for the last two years - riding at number one for the visitors.

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Team boss Simon Stead reckons Musielak will lead a strong threat from the opposition but hopes his own riders will have enough to continue what he has described as a ‘bright enough’ start to the campaign.

“But for a couple of hiccups on the road we could easily have added more to our tally,” Stead said.

“We’ve got four points on the board though - which to say we haven’t ridden at home yet, we’re pretty pleased with.

“The boys are desperate for a home fixture now though just to help them settle in a little bit more.

”We can’t use the excuse of blowing cobwebs off anymore; all of our boys are riding more now and because of that I only think we’re going to get better and better.

“I do think King’s Lynn will be a tough contest though because they’ve got a very good team this year in my opinion.

“Tobi is obviously no stranger and he’ll have a point to prove coming back to Sheffield of course.

“But if we continue from where we left off at Leicester then I’m hopeful we can come out on top again in what should be another great contest.”

The April 18 meeting (7.30pm) is due to be the first home fixture for Sheffield, with three previous meetings having been rained off already.

Sheffield are full strength, but Kings Lynn will be without Danish star Niels-Kristian Iversen, who has been ruled out after suffering concussion in a crash at Vojens on Tuesday when he was racing in his national World Championship/SEC qualifying round.

Birmingham’s Tom Brennan will be taking his place in Thursday’s match at Owlerton, whilst former Stars racer Richard Lawson will come in when the Tigers visit the Adrian Flux Arena on Monday.

Kings Lynn operations director Dale Allitt said: “It’s a big blow to have this happen so early in the season, but the main thing is Niels’ health because it was a bad crash.”

Meanwhile, Sheffield’s former World Champion, Chris Holder says he and his team-mates are counting down the minutes until they can race on Sheffield shale once again.

He said: ““Everyone’s chomping at the bit to get back there and get our first meeting run at home.

“We’ve been doing what we can on the road and we’ve been able to pick up a few points thankfully.

“So it might be a lot later than expected, but at least we’re going to be rolling up to Sheffield ready to go.”

Sheffield: Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Chris Holder, Josh Pickering, Tai Woffinden, Jason Edwards, Dan Gilkes.

Kings Lynn: Tobiasz Musielak, Tom Brennan, Michael Palm Toft, Benjamin Basso, Vadim Tarasenko, Patryk Wojdylo, Anders Rowe.