PROP Ben Davies is almost certainly out of Oldham’s important Betfred League 1 clash at Newcastle Thunder on Sunday after suffering a serious mouth injury in the Coral Challenge Cup defeat by Widnes Vikings.
He appeared to be hurt in a second-half clash of heads with teammate Jack Spencer. After attention on the pitch, he walked off with a bloody mouth and was taken away to hospital.
“It was seriously nasty — one of the worst injuries of its kind I’ve ever seen,”
said coach Scott Naylor.
Due to suspensions and injuries, Roughyeds went into the tie without a clutch of senior players such as Aaron Jones-Bishop, Adam Brook, Matty Wilkinson, Lee Kershaw, Danny Grimshaw, Danny Bridge and Anthony Bowman.
Of those seven, Brook, Grimshaw and Bridge will still be unavailable; Brook and Grimshaw because of injury and Bridge because his suspension still has a short time to run. He will be free for the long trip to Llanelli for the West Wales Raiders game on Saturay, April 27.
Another in jury concern from the cup-tie was one involving Harry Maders, who might have torn a calf or, at best, damaged it to a lesser degree.
On a happier note, Jones-Bishop and Bowman have now cleared their two-match bans and on-loan Kershaw will be available again after missing the Widnes game because his parent club, Wakefield Trinity, didn’t want him to be cup-tied.
Naylor is also hopeful that hooker Wilkinson will be available for the trip to the North-East after missing the Widnes game because he took a knock to the head against London Skolars and ultimately failed a head test.
“We follow protocol in things like this but he’ll have another test this week and hopefully he’ll come through,”
said Naylor.
