Hull FC rocked by injury to star ahead of semi-final

Brett Hodgson revealed in his pre-match conference that Joe Cator will be missing for this weekend’s Challenge Cup semi-final clash with St Helens.

“Unfortunately we lose Joe Cator, he came off with a calf complaint at the back end of the game last week,” Hodgson said.

“He’s been going vey well and I’ve been really happy with his progression this year; we will miss him but it will be time for someone else to step in and we’ve got our minds made up about who will replace him.”

Hodgson identified one key area in which Hull need to improve on from last week’s defeat to St Helens.

“I think there were a number of reasons why we weren’t at our best, but none of those are excuses.

“I’ve looked at how we were at the start of the game; our intent was way off and St Helens were excellent – they started quickly and we weren’t able to control that.

“Effectively the game was lost in that first 15 minutes and we’re expecting more of that but we need to be better.”

The Hull boss was keen to stress how important the Challenge Cup is for the club.

It’s a different competition and understandably Saints will be up for it, and we want to be up for it.

“It’s such a historic competition and we want to be at Wembley in 5-6 weeks time – we’re looking for the improvement as a group.

“The history of the Challenge Cup is important to us, obviously we’ve had success in recent years and want to get there again.

“Ultimately it’s about an 80 minute performance at the weekend – we can use that to inspire to us, but we haven’t spoken about St Helens.

“We’ve spoken about what it means to our supporters and the city.”