Leigh Leopards’ Adrian Lam is fearing the worst following the injury Bailey Hodgson picked up in the final two minutes of Thursday’s clash with Wigan Warriors.
The Leopards lost 54-0 to Wigan on the night and with the Cherry and Whites running in nine tries, it’s safe to say it was a performance to forget for Lam’s side. However, the head coach, who was already without Edwin Ipape due to a knee injury, lost three players during the course of the game.
Joe Ofahengaue left the field in the seventh minutes after a Brad O’Neill tackle left him with a lower leg injury. Matt Davis was then forced off with a head knock before ultimately failing a HIA.
And, in the final two minutes of the contest, Hodgson injured his knee innocuously as he hit the deck and Lam fears that the full-back could now be facing a lengthy lay-off.
“The Joe one wasn’t too good with the timing of that. We’re probably short of a middle on that bench anyway,” Lam said after the game.
“That complicated things and we had to shuffle things around but you have to survive and get on with it.
“Bailey Hodgson doesn’t look good at the moment but we’ll know a bit more over the next 72 hours probably. That was just out of nothing so we’ll see what happens but it’s probably PCL or ACL so fingers crossed it’s not but we’ll wait and see.
“Matt Davis was completely knocked out so he’ll miss next week.”
On the game itself, which saw Leigh lose their second game of the season, Lam added: “In preview, they’re playing some finals footy already in round three of the season so we knew it would be difficult.
“I think we have to be better there in the first 20 minutes, they won field position and had a tackle six turnover, I think it was Lachy Lam that gave away a penalty when it was our ball and that turned the first 20 minutes and you just can’t do that here.
“All of a sudden the avalanche of possession went against us and it was double the workload in defence in that first half, points racked up and it went from bad to worse.”
Leigh Leopards will be striving to bounce back next week when they take on Catalans Dragons who underwhelmed last time out against Bradford Bulls but will be looking for a reaction of their own this week against St Helens.
“We have to make sure we stay positive through this,” Lam said. “It’s only round three and we’ve had a difficult start.
“We probably should have won last week which we didn’t and that doesn’t help but it is what it is and some new players will get an opportunity now to put the jersey on and we have to power on. There’s no point being concerned about the injuries.
“Tonight we were really poor and Wigan were awesome, that’s as good as it gets in rugby league.
“A few hard lessons for us but we’ll take it in our stride and I know we have a group that will respond one way or another. We’re back at home next week, it’s probably a game that’s a must win to get back on track and make sure we keep our way but it’s going to take some time. I’m patient and we’ll get through it.”
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