YORK City Knights will be without injured pair Kriss Brining and Marcus Stock for the trip to London Broncos.

Both players picked up hamstring injuries in last week’s 30-6 win at Sheffield Eagles and were forced off early at the Keepmoat Stadium.

The duo will be big misses in Sunday’s second round tie in the Betfred Challenge Cup (2.30pm) given their influential impacts.

Brining scored York’s second try before a mazy run from Stock assisted Ben Jones-Bishop effort minutes afterwards.

Speaking about Brining, Knights head coach James Ford said: “Kriss has got a hamstring issue. It was a bit of a freak incident really.

“He has accelerated on a line break and hurdled a tackle, so as he’s put force into his hamstring to accelerate, he’s hurdled the defender and I suppose put his muscle through an unusual movement.

“If you factor in the lack of games that we’ve had, he’s probably not quite as resilient injury-wise, as he would be if he was game-hardened.

“He’s been really unlucky.

“I think Kriss is an outside chance for Toulouse (on April 3), more likely for Sheffield (April 18).”

On Stock, Ford added: “Again, he’s got a hammy issue. To pick up two hamstring, soft-tissue injuries in a game is probably a red flag.

“But if you look at the mechanics of the injury, it’s a real bizarre one. As he’s accelerating he gets tackled and pushed over, so it increases the stress on a muscle that’s already fatigued.

“I would expect Marcus to probably be phased back into training with the team next week.”

In Brining’s absence, hooker Daniel Barcoe - an off-season recruit from Wakefield Trinity - is set to make his professional and Knights debut.

“Danny will be on the bench this week,” confirmed Ford. “I’ve been really impressed by his attitude. He understands where he is in terms of the hooker pecking order.

“We’ve told him how he can go past those players and he’s just hammering the stuff we’ve asked him to work on.

“He’s a handful too, he’s really quick and sharp out of dummy-half and if we can get the ruck fast for him, he can cause teams problems throughout the division.

“He’ll get an opportunity this weekend and he deserves it. I’m looking forward to seeing what he serves up.”

In more positive injury develop-ments, forwards Adam Cuthbertson and Tim Spears are in the 21-man squad having missed out last week, with the former potentially in line for a York debut having been given the all-clear by the specialist on his shoulder problem.

“You can see Adam’s quality when he’s been in our team-on-team stuff,” enthused Ford. “He looks like a player that’s played a bit.

“I’m looking forward to including him when it’s the right time. He’ll be in the 21-man squad. I’ll speak to him about how he pulled up in training on Thursday night and see how he feels.

“He wants to play, I want him to play, the supporters want him to play. But ultimately we’ve got to make the most sensible decision in terms of the duration of the season.”

Despite his try, Jones-Bishop misses out on a place in the squad - further highlighting the strength at Ford’s disposal.

“It certainly helps drive us the standards,” said Ford on the size and standard of his group. “Our preparations have changed and we can go 13-on-13 in training and look at different match scenarios.

“In previous years we’ve not been able to do that, so it’s a big boost to our preparations.”

York City Knights squad: Marsh, Bass, Salter, Atkins, K Dixon, O’Hagan, R Dixon, Jubb, Teanby, Clarkson, Scott, Cuthbertson, Baldwinson, Kirmond, Green, Spears, Porter, Whiteley, Barcoe, Washbrook, Dow-Nikau.