BUCCANEERS ace Mark Baseby will wear a knee brace for the first time at Weymouth tonight as he bids to get back to top form.
The Bournemouth Castle Cover star fell heavily at King’s Lynn in his first ride on Saturday while guesting for Isle of Wight and aggravated a knee injury.
Baseby was forced to pull out of that meeting straight away.
But he purchased a brace in midweek and is hopeful it will do its job at the Wessex Stadium in a mouth-watering National League Knockout Cup quarter-final first leg tie (7.15pm).
Baseby said: “The only way I’ll find out is by trying it out, and the Weymouth track is normally quite slick so hopefully it will be easier to ride for me.
“King’s Lynn’s track was quite heavy and deep and I just caught my steel shoe, which I think has been part of the problem, on the corner before and wrenched my leg.
“I couldn’t hold myself up going round the next bend and just went down.
“I’ve had knee ligament problems earlier this season and have been wearing a knee support, but not a brace.
“Fortunately, Saturday’s fall didn’t make the ligaments any worse and I’ve been swimming all week to get more strength in the muscles.
“It’s just getting it moving and it felt fine. I’ve been increasing the laps to increase the intensity on the knee and it’s coping quite well.”
Baseby, who missed Buccaneers’ whopping 56-36 home league win over Wildcats on May 28 through injury, added: “I’ve had good and bad meetings at Weymouth.
“I’m due a good one, so hopefully it will be tonight.”
Jerran Hart is unavailable for Bournemouth tonight, but Weymouth are at full strength.
Weymouth: 1 Lee Smart, 2 Matt Wright, 3 Tim Webster, 4 James Cockle, 5 Mark Burrows, 6 Terry Day, 7 James White Williams.
Bournemouth: 1 Danny Warwick, 2 Andrew Aldridge, 3 Jay Herne, 4 Mark Baseby, 5 Kyle Newman, 6 Aaron Baseby, 7 John Resch.
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