Hull FC boss confirms more injury woes after Wigan Warriors loss

Hull FC slipped to another defeat on the road as Wigan Warriors beat them 22-4 and it’s seen the Black and Whites pick up yet more injuries.

It means FC are still yet to win away from the MKM Stadium in 2024, something they’ll only have one more chance at when they play Leeds Rhinos in a fortnight’s time at Headingley.

They could be forced to call upon reserve players for that game as their injury issues worsened today in the defeat to Wigan with two of their senior players forced from the field in the first half.

Mid-season signing Jed Cartwright was forced off after seeing a nasty cut open up above his eye and the NRL recruit subsequently failed a Head Injury Assessment over half-time, meaning he’ll be sat in the sidelines for next week’s game against Castleford Tigers.

His second-row partner for the day and fellow mid-season recruit, Ed Chamberlain, had earlier been forced off with a shoulder injury meaning that the list of healthy Hull FC forwards has shrunk even smaller.

Hull FC injury list grows to double figures

Head coach Simon Grix spoke on Sky Sports after the loss to confirm the injury blows as he applauded his side’s effort in what was a determined performance against champions Wigan.

“I think after our last outing, I would have expected nothing less, and I’d have taken nothing less, to be honest,” Grix explained, referencing the loss to London Broncos at Magic Weekend.

“Effort was definitely there but we were just not smart enough at times, and our discipline really let us down, but you’re playing against a Wigan team that’s full of really strong athletes that they carry you up the field and a little bit of class in there as well so I think we can be proud of our performance which was the aim really.”

Responding to the fact that his side were in the wars once again with both second-rowers forced off, Grix explained: “Some blokes did it tough through the middle so we lost Ed (Chamberlain) to a shoulder early, Jed (Cartwright) with a HIA so Will Gardiner and Yusuf Aydin did real big minutes for us.

“Jordan Lane did 80 minutes down the middle of the field against probably the best pack in the competition so there were some real good efforts in amongst.

“We’ll go away, take the positives out of it and move on quickly.”

It now means that the club’s injury list stretches to 11, although winger Mitieli Vulikijapani did feature for the club’s reserves on Saturday meaning he could be close to a return.

They will also see Ligi Sao and Denive Balmforth return from their suspensions whilst both Sam Eseh Jr and Tiaki Chan will again be available after being unable to play against their parent club.