LEICESTER have mixed news on the injury front as they travel to Ipswich for their next ROWE Motor Oil Premiership fixture on Thursday (7.30pm).
Despite the horrific crash involving Watling JCB Lions duo Dan Thompson and Nick Morris at Northampton on Monday, Thompson has declared himself fit to ride at Foxhall.
The meeting does come a little too soon for Morris, who is resting an ankle injury, and the Lions will use rider replacement to cover for him.
But the latest updates come as a major relief to the Lions, who in the immediate aftermath of the incident at Northampton International Shaleway could have been facing the prospect of losing both riders for the remainder of the season.
Elsewhere in the side, former Ipswich rider Lewis Kerr steps in as a guest for the absent Kyle Howarth at reserve.
The Lions require a maximum of four more points to secure their place in the play-offs, and they will be confident of doing that with three home matches still remaining.
First up though is the trip to Foxhall to face a Witches side who are fighting to hold on to their place in the top four, with local rivals King’s Lynn breathing down their necks.
They are without Scott Nicholls due to a broken collarbone, but their guest choice is a strong one as former Ipswich man Adam Ellis recently scored 20 points at Foxhall when racing for his current club Northampton.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “Everybody is relived because considering what happened at Northampton, it could have been an awful lot worse.
“Dan was back in the workshop on Tuesday with Ryan Ingram getting the bike straightened out again, and whilst he has a sore hip there’s no further damage.
“Nick needs to rest his ankle injury and Ipswich will be too soon for him, and he’ll then take a look at things ahead of the weekend. The rider replacement options are pretty limited, but hopefully we can cover for him.
“The way I look at things is that we got a point against Sheffield that we weren’t expecting, and then we would have been expecting to win at Northampton so it’s almost levelled itself out – we’re probably a point short, but the aggregate point on Monday was still an important one.
“Realistically we needed to win at Northampton to have any chance of catching Belle Vue so I think that’s gone now, but as long as we don’t do anything silly we should be looking good for the play-offs and hopefully second place.
“We go again on Thursday and whilst we know it will be difficult to repeat what we’ve done there earlier this season, I’m still confident we can put up a good show ahead of bringing them back to us on Bank Holiday Monday.”
For Lions fans not making the trip to Foxhall, live streaming coverage is available from https://witchestv.co.uk/ , whilst live score updates can be viewed at https://live.britishspeedway.co.uk/ .
IPSWICH: Richard Lawson, Adam Ellis, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Tobiasz Musielak, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Jason Edwards.
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Drew Kemp, Nick Morris R/R, Dan Thompson, Sam Masters, Lewis Kerr, Joe Thompson.
