BOSS Matt Ford admits Pirates are still recovering from the shattering loss to injury of Darcy Ward and says there is work to do to restore the club to its former glory.

Pirates were rocked when fans' favourite Ward – during a loan spell at Swindon – suffered serious spinal damage in a crash in Poland in August 2015.

Prior to the accident, the Australian international had been widely regarded as a future world champion, his enforced retirement leaving Poole without the most potent weapon in their asset base.

And Ford admitted he had struggled to replace the mercurial Queenslander, with many of the sport's biggest names seemingly unwilling to race in Britain.

However, Ford insisted the likes of Grand Prix star Maciej 'Magic' Janowski and the rapidly-improving Vaclav Milik would again don the skull and crossbones.

Speaking ahead of Pirates' SGB Premiership opener against visitors Wolverhampton tomorrow (7.30pm), Ford told the Daily Echo: "Darcy's injury had an immense impact on the club and I don't think we're over that.

"What we lost was the most exciting rider in the world, who would always have represented Poole Pirates. The only reason he went to Swindon was because we couldn't fit him in after he returned from a ban and they were in the right place at the right time.

"I have to take it on board and accept people have a very valid point when they say we are not the team we were a couple of years ago. That's why I'm trying to change it.

"There are riders on the continent who I would love to see in a Pirates race jacket but when I look at the international scene, riders the standard of Patryk Dudek and Bartosz Zmarzlik have no interest in riding here.

"It isn't that they don't want to ride for Poole, they don't want to ride in Britain at all, so I can't take that personally. And the saving grace is that no one else has got them.

"There's no doubt there has been a bit of a lull in the past couple of years, with Magic deciding not to ride in the UK. Three years he rode for us and three years we won it. He certainly was magic and that personality... those guys aren't easily replaced.

"I've been trying to sign Vaclav since he left and he has promised to come back. He would like to but is under a certain amount of pressure to not have too much to do.

"But he knows I would love him at Poole, as I would Magic. While these guys ride in Sweden, it's hard for us to get them but not everyone is totally at ease with Sweden so there is a chance they will return.

"With some riders, you know it's never going to happen. In their case, I think it's a matter of when."

Pirates: (from) Brady Kurtz, Kacper Woryna, Josh Grajczonek, Linus Sundstrom, Peter Kildemand, Mateusz Szczepaniak, James Shanes.

Wolverhampton: (from) Jacob Thorssell, Kyle Howarth, Cameron Heeps, Rory Schlein, Sam Masters, Nathan Greaves, Ashley Morris.