The Italian, who sustained a badly burned arm in a crash with Adam McKinna at Newcastle last Sunday, has been told by doctors that he will be sidelined for up to a month.

But on Saturday, Berwick manager Dave Peet confirmed that Franchetti has been told that if a replacement can be found he will lose his place in the Bandits' 1-7.

"The problem is two-fold," admitted Peet. "First of all Gino has been ruled out for up to a month, which puts a lot of strain on the side. In addition to that he has missed a lot of meetings for us already this year. His average has dropped quite a bit, which means it is extremely difficult to find replacements, and it is due to drop again in August, which will make it all the more difficult.

"For that reason I have had to tell him that if a rider becomes available to replace him we will follow that course of action.

"I know Gino is a popular rider at Shielfield, but we have to think of the team as a whole."

One rider possibly being lined up to fill Franchetti's boots is Rusty Harrison. The Aussie, who previously rode for Edinburgh, recently lost his place at Glasgow after they signed William Lawson, who was axed by the Bandits in favour of Stanislaw Burza.

"It's an option," said Peet. "I will be speaking to Rusty, but we will just have to wait and see how things go, because there might be other clubs looking to use him as well.

"If he does accept an offer to ride for us he will go into the main body of the team, which would allow Tero (Aarnio) to drop back down to reserve."

There is no meeting at Shielfield this Saturday as Bandits will be riding in the Fours Final at Workington. They have been drawn in the same group as King's Lynn, Redcar and Somerset and will be respresented by Michal Makovsky, Josef Franc, Paul Clews and Tero Aarnio as new signing Stan Burza is ineligible to ride.

Tonight (Thursday) Bandits are in action in the Premier League at Redcar.