BELLE Vue boss Ian Thomas has alleged that Pirates rider Antonio Lindback is not really injured and that he should not have been allowed to miss Wednesday's meeting at Poole.

The Aces co-promoter has protested to the British Speedway Promoters' Association that the Dorset club had broken the rules by pre-arranging for Peterborough's Ryan Sullivan to guest for them.

Poole chief Matt Ford whose side beat Belle Vue 50-44 at home, with Sullivan but without Lindback has fiercely denied that his club is involved in any wrongdoing.

Ford claimed that Lindback had "aggravated a neck injury" in a fall while riding in Sweden on Tuesday, which was verified by a doctor's certificate received at 9am on Wednesday.

The Pirates boss added that the Swede had carried the injury through four meetings in four days and that Lindback's father Ola had told him before his fall on Tuesday that there was "only a 50-50 chance" his son would ride at Poole last night because of the problem.

Thomas said last night: "I got a call from a third party, whose name I cannot divulge, at 3pm on Tuesday telling me Lindback would be injured tonight (meaning Tuesday night).

"My information was that he wouldn't be at Poole tonight (Wednesday) and that Ryan Sullivan was guesting instead.

"I have an entertainment's agency and I could do with a couple of mind readers like Matt Ford and Mike Golding.

"This was at 4pm Swedish time and the meetings over there hadn't even started.

"I attempted to ring Matt straight away but couldn't get hold off him. So I rang the meeting referee Jim Lawrence and informed him of what I had been told.

"Also I also spoke to the BSPA and Chris Van Straaten, the vice-chairman.

"When I eventually did get hold of Matt on Tuesday night he said he was having problems getting Lindback to come tonight.

"Then, at 8.58pm on Tuesday I get a message from Matt saying that in fact, the Swedish meeting Lindback had been in was rained off, and that Lindback had fallen off and was injured.

"Basically, that is a load of rubbish."

Thomas added: "What has happened is wrong. It is totally wrong. You can't say you are going to get injured before a meeting.

"Of course he will get a doctor's certificate (to confirm he is injured) and it would be very difficult to challenge a doctor's note.

"The thing is this time it has been sussed.

"Not only did I get to know he was going to be injured, I got to know who the guest was!

"Poole have been caught red-handed. I knew 27 hours before the meeting what was going to happen and it is just not right.

"I'm really not happy about this, irrespective of the final result tonight, and the powers that be need to do something about it.

"I will be sending a report to the BSPA and I shall be including all of this in that report."