Ipswich Witches American star Gino Manzares is facing a hectic few weeks.

After tonight’s Premier League clash for the Suffolk side at Foxhall against Glasgow Tigers, Manzares flies out to Italy tomorrow for the first round of the World Under-21 championship, in Lonigo.

And next week he will be riding for the USA in the World Cup. Nice and busy, just how the Californian likes it.

“It’s a busy time and I can’t wait,” the popular 21-year-old admitted.

“I’m very excited about the world under-21s. That was my goal at the start of the season to qualify for the final and that’s what I’ve done. Now I want to finish as high as I can. A top-five finish would be good.”

Manzares will fly out with promoter Chris Louis to the Italian track. The series is decided over three rounds, with the other two being in August in Poland and in October in the Czech Republic.

Tonight, however, Manzares and his Witches team-mates are back in home Premier League action against a Glasgow side who are currently struggling. Just as last week against Plymouth, all three points will be the minimum requirement for the Witches, who were surprisingly beaten by an injury-ravaged Tigers team last month in Scotland.

“We want to get all the points, get into the play-offs and then turn it on in the play-offs,” Manzares added. We are starting to get to the fun part of the season.”

Ipswich: R Worrall, R Hawkins, M Risager, G Manzares, R Tungate, C Heeps, A Ellis

Glasgow: K Wolbert, C Henry, A Thomsen, T Pijper, R Harrison, K Lykke-Nielsen, S Nielsen

Mike’s prediction: Witches 55 Tigers 35