SHEFFIELD will be without Rising Star Luke Killeen for Thursday’s (May 28, 7.30pm) league trip to Leicester.
The 21-year-old aggravated rib injuries during Monday afternoon’s fixture at Belle Vue and is still feeling the effects.
The Tigers have turned to Nathan Ablitt to stand in at No.7 - the young Brit who raced for the club’s development team in 2024 and who also guested for them in the top-flight last season in a meeting where he later discovered he was actually racing with a broken scaphoid.
Sheffield will be looking for inspiration from their first visit of the season to the Hydroscand Arena last month which saw them narrowly lose 46-44 in an explosive Premiership Knockout Cup tie which made national headlines following a clash between current skipper Josh Pickering and former captain Kyle Howarth.
The Tigers will hope to take belief from their strong finish at home to Belle Vue on Monday night, which saw them run out 54-36 winners, and co-owner Damien Bates is keen to see his side register an away success sooner rather than later.
“It’s been a fairly solid start I’d say - but I know we can do even better,” Bates said.
“In some of the meetings it’s just been the odd race here and there, and a bit of inconsistency that’s cost us.
“In both of our last two home meetings though we’ve come really good right towards the end and with the way we finished against Belle Vue, hopefully we can take something from that into this Leicester meeting.
“They’ve been a bit of a bogey side for us in recent meetings, but we know we’ve got what it takes to beat them, we went close there earlier in the season so hopefully we can push them again on Thursday and it would be nice to get an away win on the board.”
Leicester operate Rider Replacement for injured star Dan Thompson.
Anyone who is unable to make the trip to Leicester will be able to stream the action via: britishspeedwaynetwork.co.uk
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Dan Thompson R/R, Nick Morris, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson. SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Chris Holder, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Jye Etheridge, Nathan Ablitt.
