PETERBOROUGH will be without Bradley Wilson-Dean for this weekend’s Championship Shield semi-final clashes with Lakeside.
The New Zealand star goes into hospital on Thursday for a pre-arranged shoulder operation, involving the removal of a plate and nine screws.
And the T.Balfe Construction Panthers will be waiting until next week before discovering whether Wilson-Dean can play any further part in their trophy challenge.
Promoter Ged Rathbone said: “The club were fully aware when we signed Bradley in mid-season that this operation would be taking place.
“We didn’t expect the season to go on anywhere near as long as it has done – certainly, being successful and being in so many competitions has caused some other little problems!
“After the operation we will re-assess Bradley next week to see whether it’s a season-ending injury, so we’ll give him a few days’ recovery time first, see how he feels and then go from there.
“If he feels up for riding then he’ll continue, but we won’t know that until after the operation.
“It’s not a major surgery and there should be no after-effects other than general soreness, so there is a slim possibility that he could carry on racing, and obviously he’s a vital part of the team.
“We know it also affects Somerset (in the Premiership), so it’s just a waiting game, and if does turn out to be a season-ending injury then we’ll just dig deep again as we normally do.
“I’ve got to stress that Bradley can’t take any blame here, both ourselves and Somerset were fully aware when we both signed him that this was planned, and whilst we have looked at sending him private, it wasn’t really an option within the timescale that we’ve got. We have to accept it and look at things in the middle of next week.”
Meanwhile Panthers are also hoping that a further week will help Ulrich Ostergaard get back to speed after his long lay-off.
The Dane, recently back from rib injuries, ran a last in his first ride on Sunday but improved thereafter and was involved in a hectic Heat 13 scrap with Richard Lawson and Ben Barker.
Rathbone said: “We keep fully in touch with Ulrich and we support him in what he’s doing.
“We all know his scores since he’s come back haven’t been up to the level that we, or he, expect and he’s working hard on the bike to sort things out.
“He was out for a long time, but there were glimpses on Sunday that he’s on the way back, and hopefully that will be even more the case this weekend.”
Panthers travel to Rye House for the first leg of the Championship Shield semi-final against Lakeside on Saturday (7pm) before hosting the return at the East of England Arena on Sunday (5pm).