Brett Hodgson gives updates on injuries as well as winger’s future at the club

Brett Hodgson was victorious in his first game as Hull boss against Huddersfield last weekend, but he does have a few injury concerns heading into the fixture with Salford.

“Everyone got through well, so we’ll only be replacing Josh (Bowden) – obviously he won’t be right with concussion protocol, but everyone else was fine.

“Jack Brown will be right to go on Monday next week, he rolled his ankle slightly at the middle of last week’s session, but it’s only a minor setback for him.

“Unfortunately for Masi (Matongo) it’s more concerning, he went in for an operation on Saturday to get his meniscus repaired and we need to see the extent of how that goes over the next fortnight to see how long that break will be,

“At this stage it’s going to be a long period out; he’s had bad luck with injury the last couple of years so he is disappointed as you can imagine.”

There was one team choice which led to a few raised eyebrows in round one, but Jordan Lane soon vanquished any fears with a stellar performance at loose-forward and he earned great praise from the Hull boss.

“I thought he was very good last week, he’s got a good engine and a good physical presence in the middle of the field and he can ball play too.

“We thought for the balance of the squad that not carrying Jordan Johnstone into the game, we could bring Joe Cator into the squad who can cover 9. For the initial round it worked well.”

Another standout in that opening round victory was Ligi Sao, who impressed Hodgson significantly.

“Ligi is a real leader of our pack, he’s very phyiscal and I thought he got the balance right between the physical intent and the discipline which in the past he has needed to improve on.

“But, so far he’s been excellent in the role we’ve been asking for.”

Hodgson also gave an update on trialist Miteli Vulikijapani’s future at the club.

“We’re in discussions with him at that moment in terms of continuing his association with us in the upcoming weeks.”

Hodgson asserted his own stamp on the Hull squad during pre-season by naming Marc Sneyd his captain and the FC boss waxed lyrical about the halfback’s performance on the opening weekend.

“I thought he was very good; there were a couple of pivotal moments especially around our last tackle plays that he needed to execute his role and really calm it down for us.

“I like that he ran the ball which is something we asked of him and for the most part he was very solid defensively. Sneydy is a really crucial person in our approach this year.”