Hull FC

Hull FC man breaks arm as John Cartwright fails to rule out further additions

by
Will Jackson
April 5, 2025

Hull FC head coach John Cartwright admits he has an injury crisis on his hands after seeing three more back-row options pick up issues this week.

The Black and Whites were already without Jed Cartwright and Ollie Holmes due to injury ahead of their Challenge Cup quarter-final clash with Hull KR and they saw Brad Fash join the list of walking wounded on Friday due to a calf injury picked up in training.

Matters were made worse when Jordan Lane left the field in the first half of the 32-16 defeat, with x-rays confirming a broken arm, while makeshift second-rower Ed Chamberlain sustained a knee problem in the second half. It meant Hull were forced to end the game with Jack Ashworth on one edge, while Jordan Rapana also stepped into the pack late on.

With a Super League trip to Warrington Wolves lined up for next Saturday, Cartwright now has something of a dilemma.

“We’ve got some injuries in the back-row which is really concerning, all of our back-rowers are on the sideline at the moment and that’s a key part of your defensive system,” Cartwright said after the game. “It’s hard when you put makeshift guys in there.

“I thought Jack Ashworth did a pretty fair job and I think we had Jordan Rapana in there by the end of the game as well. We’ll have to do some thinking to come up with a team next week.

“Jordan broke his arm. He’ll be out for a while. He got the x-rays back just then, he’s got a broken arm.

“[Chamberlain] has twisted a knee, it’s not an ACL, I’m hoping just a minor medial but we’ll have a medical on Monday and we’ll go from there.

“Fash tore a calf muscle at training yesterday, there’s another back-rower that will be out for a little bit. He wasn’t good enough to play today, he was at captain’s run and felt something pop and he’ll go for a scan Monday.”

Cartwright suggested to Serious About RL earlier this week that Hull FC are close to spending full cap following the arrival of Will Pryce, but he failed to rule out the possibility of a further addition or loan in order to ease their back-row injury woes.

“It’s something we’re going to have to look at,” Cartwright said when asked if recruitment was possible. “The stocks are really low.

“Hopefully Ed Chamberlain will be OK but Ed has been mostly playing in the centres. We had to do a shuffle when Fashy pulled out yesterday, take Ed out of the centres and put him in the back-row. We’ll have to check what’s available but we’ll get a check on Ed first.”