Knights injury curse strikes unlucky Rhys (From York Press)

Knights injury curse strikes Rhys Clarke

11:50am Monday 6th August 2012 in Knights RL By Peter Martini, peter.martini@thepress.co.uk

YORK City Knights fans must be wondering if their team have been victims of a voodoo curse after they suffered yet more injury woe.

Rhys Clarke went to hospital after the Knights’ defeat to Featherstone on Friday night to check out a damaged wrist, and he duly underwent surgery over the weekend after being told he had dislocated the joint, which means he will not play again this season.

He is also due to have further surgery tomorrow on a broken scaphoid (bone in the wrist).

The Knights were already without more than a full team of players that night, with the half-back positions having been particularly hit by rotten luck this term.

Scrum-half Ollie Olds’ season-ending knee injury – while playing for parent club Leeds’ under-20s just three weeks into his emergency dual-reg spell at Huntington Stadium – was described tongue in cheek by player-coach Chris Thorman as the “icing on the cake”.

This latest blow takes it beyond a joke. Clarke, a back-rower and very occasional stand-in hooker, had donned the stand-off shirt for the first time to plug the gap – becoming Thorman’s eighth half-back partner this season.

His stint in the halves lasted just short of 80 minutes, as he suffered his injury at the end of Friday’s match – just as he was announced as the sponsors’ man of the match.

“Great news, not broke,” he tweeted from hospital. “But it’s dislocated, twisted and mangled. Season over. Gutted.”

Thorman was already out of half-back options, as well as being forced into calling up two junior reserves on Friday night, with Tim Stubbs becoming the club’s youngest-ever player.

How he will fill the void against Northern Rail Cup winners and Championship challengers Halifax next weekend is anybody’s guess.

Meanwhile, the Knights remain second from bottom of the Co-operative Championship after basement side Hunslet Hawks were beaten 36-6 at home by Leigh Centurions.

Halifax pulled back to within two points of Featherstone with a 30-26 home win over Sheffield Eagles, and Keighley beat Dewsbury 34-6.