Sheffield Tigers left with “massive hole” after Tai Woffinden crash

Following Tai Woffinden’s crash in Poland last weekend, Sheffield Tigers boss Simon Stead has spoken of the “massive hole” the crash has left in Woffinden’s Premiership team.

Woffinden crashed while representing his new Polish club, Rzeszow, last weekend, and was airlifted to hospital and placed in a medically-induced coma.

The three-time Speedway World Champion was due to ride for Sheffield today (3 April) in their Premiership opener versus Birmingham.

“What happened on Sunday with Tai [Woffinden] has, understandably, knocked the stuffing out of us a bit,” said Sheffield Tigers team boss Simon Stead, as reported by The Star.

“It’s been a really, really strange and tough couple of days for everyone in the team, for everyone connected with the club and for the whole of the speedway world as well because he is one of the biggest names and characters we’ve got.

“It goes without saying that he hasn’t been off my mind this week and my thoughts and very best wishes go to Tai and all of his family.

“It does leave a massive hole in our team with everything Tai brings on and off track – but the reality is, our season gets underway on Thursday and if he was here himself, he’d have been firing the lads up and winning would be on his mind.

“One thing I do know with this group of lads is that they are head-strong, they are determined and from day one last Thursday, there is a real togetherness about them – and that is going to count for so, so much, particularly in these opening weeks of the season.”

With Woffinden unavailable, Sheffield Tigers will split his scheduled races between Anders Rowe, Josh Pickering, Chris Holder, Danyon Hume, and Leon Flint; with only Jack Holder ineligible to ride as a replacement for Woffinden.