A broken right collarbone for Ales Dryml has just added to Oxford Cheetahs' woes ahead of tonight's meeting at Poole.

Hospital X-rays confirmed the injury Dryml sustained after crashing out in heat seven of Monday's heavy defeat against Coventry Bees and he will miss at least the next three fixtures.

With Cheetahs taking on Ipswich tomorrow in the knockout cup and on Friday in the league, there seems no respite for a team licking their wounds after some thunderous defeats.

They also have the problem of a knee injury for top rider Pepe Protasiewicz, and it may be a case of using anybody who is fit to ride.

Protasiwicz sustained the injury, the full extent of which is not known, during his Polish club Zielona Gora's home defeat at the hands of Bydgoszcz on Saturday and missed the 65-28 loss at Coventry.

Skipper Jesper Jensen and Andy Smith should be back after having to ride in meetings in Poland, which took priority over their British commitments as they were agreed before they signed Oxford contracts.

Coventry ace Rory Schlein has been booked as a guest for the meeting tonight and should Protasiewicz not be available. Oxford are likely to use rider-replacement in his absence.

Whatever formula they come up with, it's going to be another almost hopeless task against a Pirates side fighting to recover from a less than impressive start.

Their two big guns, world champion Jason Crump, and the in-form Bjarne Pedersen, are almost certain to collect 30 plus points between them, judging by their form this season.

So it looks like another bad day at the office for Cheetahs.

One shining light in all the adversity has been the attitude and form of Cheetahs favourite Steve Johnston, but he alone cannot hide the poor overall form of the Oxford septet.

Poole bring in Ritchie Hawkins for Jason Doyle, who broke his ankle against Eastbourne on Good Friday.

Poole: Pedersen, Boyce, Kennet, Hawkins, Crump, Batchelor, Watson.

Oxford: Jensen, Smith, Rider-replacement, Johnston, Schlein, Eriksson, Andersson.