YORK City Knights had fingers tightly crossed that Sam Orange’s injury nightmare was not about to recur.

The 21-year-old exited yesterday’s final friendly of pre-season after taking a bang to the knee that he had reconstructed last year.

Former York Acorn junior Orange sat out all of last season having suffered a potentially career-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury shortly after signing for his home-city team. Before that, he endured two injury-hit years that stalled his progress at Castleford Tigers.

Said Knights boss Gary Thornton: “He had a real good 15-minute spell but he was blowing a bit and hobbling a bit. When we got to speak to him he said his knee was sore. He’s pretty upset. I really hope it’s nothing serious. He’s a smashing kid and he deserves to play.”