PLYMOUTH Devil’s Todd Kurtz is hoping to be fit in time to take his place alongside fellow Australian Jack Holder in the Premier League Pairs at Somerset on Friday evening.

Kurtz has been suffering from a groin strain that ruled him out of Plymouth’s away matches at Berwick and Newcastle last weekend.

Team manager Lee Trigger said: “Todd has been suffering with a groin strain which has become a problem the more he has ridden. So we are hoping that, after resting up for a week, he will be back for the pairs.”

Plymouth are grouped with Sheffield, Edinburgh, Ipswich and Rye House in the first stage of Friday’s meeting.

The next team meeting for the Devils will be a Premier League match at Sheffield on Thursday, July 14 and their next home meeting will be against Redcar on Friday, July 22.

Trigger is hoping to have a full strength side at Sheffield with skipper Kyle Newman recovering from a broken collarbone and Sam Simota ready for action again after being injured at Berwick.

“Sam took a knock at Berwick and it was decided against taking him to Newcastle the following evening,” said Trigger.

“I have spoken to Kyle and he is making good progress and is optimistic about getting back next week. We will have to see how it goes, but we are hopeful that he will be fit to ride at Sheffield.”

Pairs line-up

Group A: Glasgow (Richard Lawson and Aaron Summers); Workington (Claus Vissing and Ricky Wells); Somerset (Josh Grajczonek and Rohan Tungate); Newcastle (Ludvig Lindgren and Matej Kus); Peterborough (Ulrich Østergaard and Nikolaj B Jakobsen).

Group B: Sheffield (Simon Stead and Kyle Howarth); Edinburgh (Sam Masters and Ryan Fisher); Ipswich (Nico Covatti and Morten Risager); Rye House (Edward Kennett and Stuart Robson); Plymouth (Jack Holder and Todd Kurtz).

The pre-meeting rider presentation and parade starts at 6.45pm with the tapes up on heat one at 7pm.