KING’S Lynn will be without Danish star Niels-Kristian Iversen for their away trip to league champions Sheffield on Thursday.
Iversen has been ruled out of the PSH Environmental Stars’ next two matches at least after suffering concussion in a nasty crash at Vojens on Tuesday when he was racing in his national World Championship/SEC qualifying round.
He tangled with Jesper Knudsen going into the first bend of Heat 1 and went heavily into the fence, necessitating a trip to hospital.
Iversen’s racing licence is now suspended by the DMU under concussion protocols which means he cannot race in the UK or Poland, or indeed his home country, until he receives medical clearance to do so.
The Stars have moved quickly to book guest replacements with Birmingham’s Tom Brennan stepping in for Thursday’s match at Owlerton, whilst former Stars racer Richard Lawson will come in when the Tigers visit the Adrian Flux Arena on Monday.
The club will continue to assess the situation with Iversen with one further fixture to come this month at Oxford on April 25.
Operations director Dale Allitt said: “It’s a big blow to have this happen so early in the season, but the main thing is Niels’ health because it was a bad crash.
“We aren’t aware of any injuries other than the concussion, so we hope after the required period of rest he will be able to return in the near future.
“In the short term we’ll look to bring in the best guests we can on a match by match basis, and we thank Tom and Richard for doing the next two meetings for us.
“Sheffield is always going to be a tough one but it’s their first home meeting so hopefully we can take advantage of that and put in a strong performance.”
Like Lynn, the Tigers have seen their schedule heavily affected by the weather so far this season, but they have picked up points from away trips to Birmingham and Leicester.
They track an all-star top three of current World No.4 Jack Holder and former World Champions Tai Woffinden and Chris Holder, as well as two members of last season’s Stars starting line-up in Josh Pickering and Jason Edwards.
And for the visitors, it will be a first return to Owlerton for Stars captain Tobiasz Musielak after two successful seasons in Sheffield colours in 2022-23.
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Chris Holder, Josh Pickering, Tai Woffinden, Jason Edwards, Dan Gilkes. KING’S LYNN: Tobiasz Musielak, Tom Brennan, Michael Palm Toft, Benjamin Basso, Vadim Tarasenko, Patryk Wojdylo, Anders Rowe.
