OUR thoughts are with, and our best wishes go to, Roughyeds’ popular winger Tommy Brierley, who suffered a broken leg on the opening day of Betfred League One.
After a five-month close season, one of the longest on record, Tommy had the misfortune to be seriously injured near the end of the Oldham v Keighley Cougars game at the Vestacare Stadium on Sunday.
He went down in a heavy tackle on a kick return and his Keighley tacklers immediately signalled to the bench for assistance.
After a prolonged stoppage, Tommy was assisted from the pitch and it has since emerged that he has suffered a fracture of the tibia — the larger of two bones in the lower leg.
There are also fears that his knee in the same leg, his left, may be damaged too.
Said head coach Stu Litter:
“We’ll know more when Tommy has had his latest scans etc at the fracture clinic. To happen on the first day of the league season was cruel luck.
“They’ll look at him at the fracture clinic and let us know what’s the best way forward.”
Tommy scored two tries in our pre-season warm-up win at Keighley at the start of March and he was looking good for an accomplished 2022.
Talking of Sunday’league game against the Cougars, which resulted in a 32-6 defeat, Littler said it was a disappointing performance which threw up several things which needed to be addressed quickly.
He added:
“We’ll review the game, look at where we went wrong and then put it to bed. The beauty of starting a league programme is that we are now playing regularly and that, in a few days’ time at Hunslet, we have the chance to come out fighting.
“On both attack and defence Keighley dominated us at the ruck and that’s one of the things we’ll be looking at.
“Another is to get some consistency into our performances. Its no good getting 8 or 9 out of ten one week and then 5 or 6 the next week.
“I’m asking for a big improvement in performance at Hunslet, but Shez (Brendan Sheridan) and I will look at ourselves first. We’re all in this together, players and coaches.”
