Last updated at 12:27, Thursday, 31 March 2011

Workington Comets have announced Carlisle rider Gary Irving as the man who is replacing the injured Kenny Ingalls in tonight’s challenge match at Redcar.

Kenny Ingalls

Ingalls is still recovering from a broken leg that he suffered at the end of last season and did not attend the Comets press and practice day on Saturday.

Denham confirmed the news on Wednesday morning that Ingalls would miss the start of the season.

He said: “Kenny’s appointment with the medical people was brought forward this week in an attempt to get to the root of the issue with the pain he suffers when riding in certain situations.

“The upshot is that the rod that was inserted into Kenny’s leg following his accident at Berwick needs to be removed and Kenny is scheduled to have an operation on April 6 to have the rod removed and will undergo intensive therapy thereafter.

“This will rule him out for at least three to four weeks before he can ride again.

“This puts us in a situation where we need to look for a replacement for Kenny and with the challenge match against Redcar we have chosen Gary Irving to replace him.

“Gary went well at press and practice on Saturday and also had a further spell on Sunday with Richard Lawson to improve his gating technique.”

“We will use today to gauge where we are with a replacement for Kenny and take it from there.”

Denham said that the Comets were still on the lookout for a five point rider to replace the gap left by the Californian during his injury lay off.

If the Workington promotion cannot find anybody to replace Ingalls by Saturday when they take on Scunthorpe in their first league match they will probably use Irving again to fill in.

A collection that took place at the Press and Practice day to help Ingalls while he is recovering raised £540 at the weekend.

Although Redcar finished bottom on the Premier League last year, they could prove a much sterner test this season with experienced Australian Jason Lyons at number one and former Comet Adam Roynon in their ranks and they pushed Newcastle all the way at the weekend losing by just a single point.

First published at 11:29, Thursday, 31 March 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk