VINNIE Foord will be out of action for a number of weeks as he continues to recover from a shoulder injury.

The Poole Pirates teenager, who was coming into some good form, crashed out earlier this month during a National League event at Leicester, suffering fractures in his shoulder as well as ligament damage.

He missed both of Poole’s fixtures last week and will again be absent when Pirates host Oxford Cheetahs in the SGB Championship tomorrow (7.30pm), with Jacob Hook booked in to guest.

Pirates then have two regular league meetings remaining ahead of the all-important play-offs, as well as semi-final fixtures in the Knockout Cup and BSN Series.

Asked for an update on Foord’s fitness, Pirates promoter Ford told the Daily Echo: “Vinnie’s been for scans and they’ve basically told him he doesn’t need surgery, he just needs to take time to recover, which is good news.

“So he is hopefully going to be back at some stage this season.

“But it’s just a case of playing the waiting game now and hoping he recovers in time.

“He’s doing his physio and all the rehabilitation he can to get back as soon as he can.

“They’re saying three to four weeks, but we’ll play it by ear. That kind of injury, with ligament damage, it’s very hard to gauge.

“We’ll check in with him as much as we can and hopefully we’ll have him back sooner rather than later, because certainly coming into the play-offs, we want to be a fully fit one-to-seven.”

A rule change brought in for the 2024 season limits Pirates’ options. They are unable to sign a replacement rider, meaning they will have to look for guests until Foord is fit again.

“That’s all we can do,” said Ford.

“Unfortunately, because the rules changed this year and now we’ve done 75 per cent of our qualifying fixtures, you can’t make a change after that, which really handcuffs you.

“It’s not something we want to do, particularly as Vinnie was coming on so well.”