Former Wolves favourite Tai Woffinden back in UK with Sheffield Tigers

The 32-year-old has checked into the Tigers as an injury replacement for Jack Holder, who is out with a broken wrist.

Woffinden last rode in England in 2016, in a second stint with Wolves, and has since been a part of teams in Sweden, Denmark and Poland.

The 2013, 2015 and 2018 world champion spent six seasons in Wolverhampton between 2009 and 2016 and remains a firm favourite with supporters.

Earlier this year he called on Wolverhampton City Council to find a new location that could act as a home for the club after Monmore Green owners told Wolves they were no longer welcome at the venue after this season.

Tigers co-promoter Damien Bates said believes the club have secured a “massive coup” by bringing ‘Woffy’ back to the UK tracks.

He said: “For Sheffield to sign a rider like Tai Woffinden is a massive coup, not only for us as a club but for British Speedway as a whole.

“Tai’s had his reasons for not racing in the UK for a while now but as soon as Steady (Simon Stead – team manager) spoke to him, he was well up for it.

“Jack has had an operation but we can’t say for definite how long he’ll be out for and we don’t know how quickly he’ll be ready to come back.

“I don’t want to be struggling to be booking guests or being forced to run rider replacement at No.1.

“So with that in mind we felt it’s better to bring in an injury replacement for Jack for now, have a full team and give ourselves the best chance of making sure we stay in that top four.

“In Tai we’ve brought in a genuine, proven world class rider and it’s going to be great to see him lining up in a Sheffield racejacket.”