PETERBOROUGH will continue to battle injury adversary when they start their biggest weekend of the season at Scunthorpe on Friday.
The T.Balfe Construction Panthers will be without both Bradley Wilson-Dean and Emil Grondal for the KO Cup semi-final first leg against the Scorpions, along with long-term casualties Scott Nicholls and Tom Bacon.
Wilson-Dean has not recovered sufficiently from shoulder surgery, whilst Grondal is out with a hand injury although it is hoped he will be fit to face Lakeside in the play-off semi-final on Saturday and Sunday.
Promoter Ged Rathbone explained: “Bradley’s surgery was a big success, but he has been left in rather more pain than had been expected.
“We had him looked at when he came to our meeting last Sunday, and the verdict was that he’s going to need more time to recover, so we’ll keep on monitoring that over the coming days.
“Emil hurt his hand when he fell in his third ride against Lakeside, and he finished the meeting in pain and went to see the paramedic at the end.
“He was signed out for a few days so he misses Scunthorpe, and hopefully we’ll have him back on Saturday with Rye House being an easier track to ride.”
Panthers will operate rider-replacement for Grondal on Friday with guest bookings being taken by Tero Aarnio, Theo Pijper and Drew Kemp – all of whom have proven records at Scunthorpe this season.
Aarnio has racked up scores of 15+2 and 9+1 in visits for Newcastle in 2018, whilst Pijper collected 10+2 for Berwick and 16-year-old Kemp a hugely impressive 12+2 from five rides for Ipswich.
The Scorpions, meanwhile, have Kyle Howarth guesting at No.1 as Josh Auty has been ruled out for the remainder of the season after a recent crash at Workington.
Rathbone added: “We don’t just look at riders’ averages and select the highest one when it comes to choosing guests.
“We’ve hand-picked them based on what they’ve done at Scunthorpe in the past and we’re still confident that we will do enough to still be very much in the tie prior to the second leg.”
The return fixture takes place at the East of England Arena on Saturday October 13 (7pm) – whilst this weekend, attention switches to the crucial Championship play-off semi-final against Lakeside with the home match on Sunday at 5pm.
SCUNTHORPE: Kyle Howarth, Stefan Nielsen, Jason Garrity, Jake Allen, Steve Worrall, Danny Phillips, Gino Manzares. PETERBOROUGH: Tero Aarnio, Emil Grondal r/r, Theo Pijper, Ulrich Ostergaard, Michael Palm Toft, Simon Lambert, Drew Kemp.