Berwick Bandits face Edinburgh Monarchs in the Premier League on Friday (7.30pm) without Norbert Magosi, who has unexpectedly returned to Hungary.

And the Hungarian rider has no plans to appear for the Bandits again in 2008.

Berwick boss Peter Waite said: "Norbert has decided that he must return home this week for purely personal reasons.

"There's no malice on either side but he left of his own volition. We have applied to be granted a facility to cover his absence for 28 days."

He added: "After that, we will have to view the options available, but for now we anticipate that the rider replacement rule will be applied, and with a good solid remaining set of riders, we should be able to plug the gap successfully."