PIRATES spearhead Ryan Sullivan has been ruled out of their Elite League title play-off final, first leg, tie at Wolves tonight (7.30pm) through injury.

But Poole RIAS have acted quickly and brought in Swindon rider Leigh Adams as a guest to replace his Australian compatriot at Monmore Green.

Sullivan fell heavily in the Norwegian Grand Prix at Hamar on Saturday, somersaulting over his handlebars and bouncing into the safety fence after he collided with the falling duo of Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen on the first bend of heat 19.

He then bounced back onto the track, where his left hand got caught in Crump's bike's back wheel, which was still turning.

Sullivan bravely came out for the second re-run of a race in which Crump ultimately clinched this year's World title.

But the Pirates rider was unable to control his bike properly because of the damage to his clutch hand, fell and was excluded.

Poole chief Matt Ford said: "Ryan doesn't think anything is broken but he had treatment yesterday and is having more today in the hope to be ready for our cup fixtures against Swindon later in the week.

"If that doesn't happen, he still hopes to ride in the Elite League title play-off, second leg, next Monday at Poole.

"At this point in time, he has restricted movement in his hand and also took a severe knock to his knee in the same incident.

"He text me within 15 minutes of the meeting in Norway finishing to say that he had damaged his hand and knee and that Monday would be impossible.

"So we acted quickly and decided to bring Leigh Adams in as a guest.

"With the connection of Leigh having been part of our championship-winning team last year, Leigh accepted the booking within seconds and we know we can't be in safer hands as regards to a guest.

"We are hoping that Ryan will be able to return for us, hopefully at Poole on Wednesday and then Swindon on Thursday.

"We will just have to wait and see how things pans out.

"I spoke to Ryan yesterday morning and he is gutted.

"He is very upset at missing the meeting tonight, especially after getting a 15-point maximum against Polish Select last week and producing his best GP performance for some time on Saturday.

"It is ironic that in the past week or so, he was probably riding the best we have seen him this season. It is a great shame but we hope that he will be back to race again for Poole before the end of the campaign."

Assessing the outcome of tonight's meeting, Ford said: "We were confident before Ryan got injured that we could get a good result at Wolves and we are confident now. It doesn't change things.

"Of course you like to take your own riders into big meetings like this, but the rules mean we can make a change and bring in a guest. We would be foolish not to do so and have to give ourselves every chance of trying to win the trophy."

If tonight's meeting is rained-off, it will be re-staged at Wolves on Wednesday.

That would mean Poole's home leg of the cup semi-final against Swindon would be put back.

The second leg of the final is at Wimborne Road next Monday, with a re-staging date of Wednesday, October 13.