Hull FC boss John Cartwright has moved to allay any fears over the injury Herman Ese’ese picked up during Sunday’s clash with Wigan Warriors. The Black and Whites lost the game 36-12 at the MKM Stadium as their wait for a home win goes on this season and it means they remain fourth in the table heading into Magic Weekend.
There was concern in the second half of the contest against Wigan, though, when Herman Ese’ese left the field holding his chest after a collision with a Warriors player. Ese’ese remained on the sidelines but he never returned to the action as Wigan pulled away and began to assert their dominance.
Cartwright insists the injury is nothing to worry about, though, with the prop set to be ready for the challenge of Huddersfield Giants next week.
“He’s got a bruised sternum – he could have gone back on, but once it got back to 26-12, and they scored again, there wasn’t long to go, and the mind turned towards next week,” Cartwright said.
Asked if there were any other injuries, he said: “I don’t think so, I think we’re OK.
“A few just getting sore, I said to the players after the game that we’re entering into the toughest part of the year, the middle third is always when you start to get a few creaks and bruises and you’ve got to play, recover the best you can and be as close to 100 per cent as you can for the following week.
“That’s a learnt thing as well, it’s not something you can tell someone to do. Zak Hardaker is a good example, he’s swathed in ice after every game and he’s lucky to train sometimes the first session of the week, but come game day he’s ready to go. That’s something that everyone of the squad could learn from.”
Hull FC boss laments ‘fundamental errors’
Hull went tit for tat with Wigan in the opening 30 minutes of the contest, but were second best after that point, with the Cherry and Whites scoring five unanswered tries, ensuring FC were firmly second best in East Yorkshire.
“It was really disappointing, to be honest,” Cartwright added. “There were patches of the game where we were pretty good, but we also made too many fundamental errors.
“You might get thrown over the sideline once, but four times we ended up getting thrown over; that’s just unacceptable. They should have kicked out on the full, but for whatever reason, we didn’t have our foot on the sideline; they get the scrum and score when it should have been a penalty on the halfway line. That’s in our hands, so I’m really disappointed with the result and some of the things that happened on the back of our fundamental errors.
“But I still felt at 26-12 that we were still in the game – we had a lot of ball on their try line, and they stopped us. They really slowed the ruck down and made it hard to attack. We came up with some errors, and then they intercepted and scored again.
“They got the game that really suits them. There were a lot of errors from us, and that makes you miss tackles. When you’re missing tackles, that’s when they really make you pay.”
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