Huddersfield hooker Adam O’Brien is likely to miss the rest of this season, Giants boss Luke Robinson has confirmed.
O’Brien suffered a neck injury in his side’s loss to Leeds two weeks ago, with initial reports that he would miss six weeks of action.
With the 27-year-old having now seen a specialist, however, his spell on the side-lines is likely to be longer if only as a precaution.
“I’m not sure he’s going to be back this year,” said Robinson. “For me, when it comes to players’ brains, anything to do with the mind and neck, you’ve got to be super careful.
“We want to win and do well. I want to win every game and see us get to Challenge Cup finals, Grand Finals, I want to win every game. But you’ve got to be exceptionally careful when it comes to players, especially anything to do with the neck area and the brain.
“If we have to be over cautious then we will be, I’d prefer to go down that route than anything else.
“Currently he’s in a brace. He’s not allowed to be out of the brace, he’s not allowed to drive. He’s pretty much sat at home in a chair not doing very much at this moment in time.
“I think the specialist said that we can probably get him out of it and put him in a soft one for sleeping. I think he’s got another two weeks then he can start driving.
“Long term I think it’s all good news. It’s good news for his career, good news for him. On a personal note I think he’ll be back fighting fit.
“It literally is just a precautionary measure with the ligament he’s got within his neck, we just need to be ultra-cautious with it.
“We need to make sure there’s no impact whatsoever over the next six weeks and it’s in a nice stationary position so it gives itself time to heal.
“But this year, with only nine games of the season to go and it being six weeks before he can really be out of the brace and start doing exercise, this year’s probably going to be a write off for him.”
O’Brien’s absence puts a degree of pressure on the Giants’ hooking position, with the former Bradford man serving as first choice throughout this season after Kruise Leeming’s departure to Leeds.
Reiss Butterworth, Huddersfield’s only other natural no.9, is also a doubt to play this week but Robinson is confident he has other players who will excel there, even if it means rotating his squad.
He added: “Butterworth has been struggling a little bit with illness this week, so he’s missed a bit of training. We’re going to make a call on him and decide whether he’s going to be fit or not.
“We’ve obviously got Tom Holmes who played there the other day. We’ve got young Olly Russell who’s played there in the past who we can use.
“At a real push if we need to use him throughout the game, I know Ash Golding’s played a little bit of hooker if we need him. That would probably be more of an emergency during the game.
“So we are a bit light if Reiss doesn’t pull through this week but we do have options.”
