Shock as Super League star set to only miss one game after what looked like nasty injury

Speaking on Hull FC’s website yesterday, Tony Smith gave an injury update om injured trio Jamie Shaul, Mitieli Vulikijapani and Jake Clifford.

“All three players will be unavailable this week, with Mitch having picked up a one-match ban anyway,” Smith said.

“Jamie (Shaul) has injured his calf and will be sidelined for two to three weeks.

He added: “Jake (Clifford) has popped a ligament on top of his ankle we think at this stage. It’s not a necessary ligament, so the ankle can still operate without it.

“He’s doing well, but we’re just waiting for swelling to go down before we send him for scans and an X-ray.

“The best case scenario if it’s not too serious would be to play next week against Huddersfield, so we’ve got our fingers crossed for him.”

On Vulikijapani, he said: “Mitch doesn’t have an ACL in his knee, and it looks like he has aggravated some cartilage there so he wouldn’t have been available this week.”

The Jake Clifford news comes as a shock with the halfback potentially only set to miss one game after a tackle from James Batchelor that left him “fuming” in the words of Sky Sports’ Jon Wells.

The tackle was a hip drop tackle which has been talked about a lot in recent days.

Batchelor was banned for the tackle and last night Morgan Knowles of St Helens received a five match ban for a similar offence.