Speedway: Two guests and no heat leaders as patched up Tigers head for Leicester
Former world champion Chris Holder ruled out of Leicester clash
Sheffield will be without all three of their heat leaders at Leicester tomorrow - with former World Champion Chris Holder now unavailable.
The 2012 champion has been called up called up to ride for Polish Second Division Ostrow, with skipper Josh Pickering and number one Jack Holder already both ruled out because of injury.
Now they have announced that they have brought in former Leicester rider Richard Lawson as another guest, with GB international Tom Brennan also set to guest for the Rowe Motor Oil Speedway Premiership clash.
Tigers will run Rider Replacement at number five for Pickering.
Leicester, second in the table, are currently a point ahead of third placed Sheffield, with Tigers having ridden one meeting more.
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.”
Tom Brennan scored eight at Leicester when he rode there with Ipswich earlier this season.
Leon Flint will stand in for Pickering as captain for the night as the Tigers lead 57-33 on aggregate.
Leicester use Kevin Juhl Pedersen as a guest for former Sheffield captain Kyle Howarth who has taken a break from the sport.
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.