INJURY-HIT Peterborough have called on two of their former riders for Wednesday’s last-gasp bid to reach the play-offs when they visit Coventry.

INJURY-HIT Peterborough have called on two of their former riders for Wednesday’s last-gasp bid to reach the play-offs when they visit Coventry.

The Readypower Panthers need to avoid defeat at Brandon to move ahead of Lakeside and into the top four – but their hopes were dealt a big blow with Monday’s events at Belle Vue.

Not only did Panthers lose the meeting, which in itself was a chance to confirm a play-off place, they also saw two riders injured, and club legend Ryan Sullivan now misses the Coventry match with hand and wrist injuries.

Linus Sundstrom, meanwhile, was concussed in his Heat 15 accident and may also require shoulder surgery, although both he and Michael Jepsen Jensen were already unavailable to face the Bees due to a fixture clash in Sweden.

Panthers had already booked Rory Schlein, who rode for the club in 2010, to step in for Sundstrom, and the Australian is expected to take his place despite suffering double-vision in the crash with Sullivan on Monday.

With rider-replacement in operation for Jepsen Jensen, King’s Lynn’s Mads Korneliussen – a Panther in 2009 – takes the guest booking for Sullivan, with Jason Bunyan lining up at reserve against the club with which he started the season.

Coventry go into the meeting with far fewer concerns, with only the injured Adam Roynon of their first-choice line-up unavailable. The Bees are also in reasonable form having delayed Birmingham’s play-off charge with a 47-43 win at Brandon on Friday, followed up by a 45-45 draw at King’s Lynn on Monday.

Panthers co-boss Jan Staechmann said: “Basically we’ve got to got to Coventry and give it absolutely everything and see if we can pull off an upset.

“There’s nothing we can do about the injury situation but we can still make it and we’ll be doing our utmost to get the right result.”

COVENTRY: Chris Harris, Aaron Summers, Edward Kennett, Kenni Larsen, Scott Nicholls, Josef Franc, Michal Szczepaniak.

PANTHERS: Mads Korneliussen, Nobert Kosciuch, Michael Jepsen Jensen R/R, Rory Schlein, Krzysztof Buczkowski, Jason Bunyan, Tomas H Jonasson.