7:00am Friday 11th April 2008
By Phil Chard
MATT Ford is calling on all Pirates fans to rally round Karol Zabik and help him reach his full potential with the club.
Poole Castle Cover's chief does not want any of the Wimborne Road faithful to get on Zabik's back after the young Pole suffered a second bad self inflicted fall.
The former world under-21 champion landed heavily on his left wrist during the Dorset club's 54-38 home Elite League win over Lakeside on Wednesday.
Ford, still awaiting the result of an X-ray due to have been undertaken by Zabik yesterday to see if any bones were broken, said: "It is a concern that Karol keeps falling off by himself.
"The injuries he has sustained are just lack of concentration, but Karol is a lovely lad who really does feel the pressure.
"So at this time, I don't want anyone putting even more pressure on him because he is already putting too much pressure on himself.
"We need to nurse Karol through this. He is under intense pressure, not from us, but in Poland. We need people's understanding.
"I can't say that more louder or clearer. We need people to be very considerate to him at this time.
"He needs your support.
"Karol is a guy with immense talent and we have to nurture it properly, not waste it."
Zabik, seemingly, is already under pressure for his Torun team place.
That is despite scoring paid eight from three rides during their 63-28 home romp over Rzeszow in their opening ExtraLeague match in front of 12,000 on Sunday.
Ford added: "I've heard no definite news about his wrist from Karol yet, but I'm hoping no news is good news and that he will be back for our two matches against Coventry next week.
"Karol's wrist was black and blue on Wednesday night and he was supposed to have been riding in a Grand Prix qualifier at Torun last night.
"That meeting was called off because of bad weather so he has had a bit of good luck with that."
Pirates use rider replacement for Zabik in the league return at Lakeside tonight (8pm).
Eastbourne's Cameron Woodward guests for injured Adam Skornicki, while Andrew Bargh, of Isle of Wight, comes in for Zbigniew Suchecki, who is unavailable.
Ford said: "We knew before the season started that Zibi would be unavailable for this one meeting.
"We are hoping it will be the only one he misses during the course of the season."
Lakeside, who beat Poole 53-40 at the Arena-Essex Raceway in a challenge on March 14, use Ipswich's Chris Louis as a guest for injured Andreas Jonsson.
Lakeside: 1 (guest) Louis, 2 Lanham, 3 Shields, 4 Kylmakorpi, 5 Davidsson, 6 Kling, 7 Tomicek.
Pirates: 1 Pedersen, 2 (guest) Woodward, 3 Watt, 4 Rr for Zabik, 5 Holder, 6 (guest) Bargh, 7 Eriksson.
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