PIRATES star Antonio Lindback misses Pirates Elite League visit to Reading tonight (7.30pm) with a foot injury sustained in the Danish Grand Prix.

But Grzegorz Walasek is due back for Poole RIAS, who are also missing injured Krzysztof Kasprzak.

Pirates co-promoter Mike Golding said: "Anton's father rang me yesterday to say that he wouldn't be able to ride.

"I thought he might have sustained the injury in the final when his ignition box failed and he struggled to put the bike down to avoid Bjarne Pedersen.

"But it didn't happen then, it happened in an earlier race, his third one I think, so he did very well to get through to the final.

"He caught his right foot between the footrest and the engine and it has swollen up quite badly.

"Anton has seen a doctor but they couldn't X-ray it. They don't think anything is broken but the doctor has advised he doesn't ride for at least another two days.

"He will definitely miss tonight and tomorrow in Sweden but hopes to be back for our home match against Coventry on Wednesday."

Golding added: "We have been told by telephone that Grzegorz is fit to resume tonight as long as he came through Poland yesterday with no further complications to his groin and gallstone problem.

"We have KK out for another 10 days at least so we have really been hit badly by injury.

"Reading is a tough place to go even with your full team and this makes it even more difficult for us to get a good result.

"It could be that it will be a damage limitation exercise tonight. It could be out of the question to go there and win.

"Hopefully, though, we can keep it close and make sure we get the bonus in the return at Poole."

Pirates fans had high hopes that Lindback would challenge former world champion Per Jonsson's 19-year-old Reading track record of 58.1 seconds the longest standing British record.

But that definitely won't happen now on the 307-metre Smallmead circuit.

n Team check, Reading: 1 Greg Hancock, 2 Travis McGowan, 3 Charlie Gjedde, 4 Matej Zagar, 5 Rider replacement for Janusz Kolodziej, 6 Andy Smith, 7 Sam Simota.

Pirates: 1 Rider replacement for Krzysztof Kasprzak, 2 Craig Boyce, 3 Grzegorz Walasek, 4 (Guest) Adam Shields, 5 Bjarne Pedersen, 6 Jonas Davidsson, 7 Shaun Tacey.

Fixtures June 26, Elite League: Belle Vue v Swindon, Reading v Pirates, Wolves v Coventry.