York Knights boss Mark Applegarth has confirmed two more injury concerns following Friday’s tough 26-14 home loss to Wakefield Trinity.
York finished the game with 12 players on the field after losing full-back Toa Mata’afa, winger Ben Jones-Bishop and centre Sam Wood and were already without half-back Danny Richardson who was hurt in their final training session.
Knights ran out of subs after Mata’afa dislocated his elbow late in the game. Wood had earlier suffered a fracture to a finger or hand.
Those injuries were confirmed when Applegarth spoke to Sky Sports after the final whistle, but he revealed another in his post-match press conference and explained why Richardson didn’t play.
He said “Bish has got an issue with his foot, I don’t know if it’s a cut or something. Once I’ve got the medical report I’ll know more.
“Danny pulled out this [Friday]. He hurt his quad on literally the final kick of the team run on Thursday.
“We left it until 2pm and it didn’t get any better. We had a couple of changes, but still the team that went out there, I thought, was easily good enough to do what we needed to do. We have just got to own those key moments.”
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With first-choice half Liam Harris on the long-term casualty list, Paul McShane switched from hooker and Applegarth added: “It’s not a bad replacement when you’ve got a guy with Macca’s brains.
“It also opened up a spot for Will Dagger coming on to the bench, which turned out pretty handy with Bish going off.
“It is what it is, it’s just sport – sometimes you’ve got the wind in your sails and other times you’ve just got to find a way.
“We want to be a team that’s adaptable. I am really proud of the spirit and effort we put in. We just need those smarts that go with it.”
