Scott Nicholls admits he would love to beat injury and ride against the club who showed him the door.

The Eastbourne Eagles top scorer is struggling with a shoulder problem and could join a long list of absentees on either side as champions Coventry Bees visit Arlington on Saturday (7.30).

If he beats the separated right shoulder he suffered in a crash in Sweden on Tuesday, the Team GB captain will not lack motivation to put one over his old team for the second time this season.

The top scoring rider in the Elite League led Coventry to a cleansweep of domestic honours last year, then found he was one of the men to go when a reduced points limit meant the team had to be rebuilt.

Eastbourne moved in to take Nicholls on loan and he has been a big favourite around the Arlington terraces since race one back in March.

As luck, or careful scheduling by those in high places, would have it, Eagles were sent to Coventry for their first away meeting of the league season, live on Sky Sports.

Nicholls won his first four races that night as Eastbourne scored an impressive win.

Both teams have under-achieved since then, with Bees' decision to axe Nicholls and keep Chris Bomber' Harris and Aussie Rory Schlein, looking more and more questionable.

Nicholls has clearly got the upper hand over Harris, having beaten his British rival in seven of their last eight head-to-heads in Grands Prix and left him way behind in the league averages.

But the Eagles star still has a point to prove. Which explains why he would love to be there tomorrow, even though Harris is absent thanks to a smash at the Millennium Stadium Nicholls said: "I enjoy racing. I don't get paid when I'm off and I've got a mortgage to pay and a living to earn.

"I enjoy my job and I'm enjoying Eastbourne and the fact it's against Coventry is an added bonus.

"The principles of what happened there left a sour taste. That's nothing against Coventry as a club. If Eastbourne had done that I'd say the same about them.

"I've made it perfectly clear I didn't fall out with the majority of people at Coventry.

"There are two people there who I thought were deceitful and two-faced.

"They weren't straight with me and I've made it perfectly clear to those people how I felt.

"It's not the older people. I've not fallen out with them.

"I still get on very well with (co-promoter) Colin Pratt and (former chief executive) Avtar Sandhu.

"Coventry felt they could build a stronger team without me and in a way I can understand that because my average was higher than Bomber's.

"It's the way it was done. I thought I had a team place, then I was told I didn't."

In fact, as looked likely on that opening Monday night at Brandon, Nicholls' move has been Eastbourne's gain and Coventry's loss.

A 63-29 mauling at Lakeside on Monday left Bees in the relegation play-off zone, though tomorrow's meeting has been rendered something of a lottery due to the ad-hoc nature of both lines-ups.

Lee Richardson and Edward Kennett are both away at GP qualifiers, as are Schlein and Simon Stead of Coventry.

Harris and Arlington specialist Billy Janniro are out injured and there must be a chance Nicholls could join them.

He could leave a decision as late as tomorrow morning but admitted: "It's not looking good.

"I've been told the harder I work the better it will get so that's what I'll do.

-