NEIL Middleditch is hopeful illness will not scupper Pirates' plans ahead of the Knockout Cup double header with Somerset on Good Friday.

Team boss Middleditch, number one Brady Kurtz and his mechanic and older brother Todd Kurtz, who live together in Sturminster Marshall, have been laid low by flu.

Brady Kurtz had been scheduled to train with Polish club Leszno today and tomorrow but illness denied him the opportunity.

However, Middleditch is positive that he and his lodgers will have shaken off the virus by the time the Rebels arrive in Dorset.

He told the Daily Echo: "I haven't seen Brady for three days – he hasn't come out of his room!

"It's very draining on the muscles and weakens you physically.

"I hope we will be ready for Friday. I have had three days of it and am slightly better today."

Poole's riders are yet to race at Wimborne Road this year after last week's 70th anniversary meeting was called off due to wet weather.

Pirates had been due to visit Wolverhampton for an SGB Premiership fixture on Monday.

But the meeting was postponed after the Monmore club rearranged their press and practice for that day, following the intervention of snow a week earlier.