Ukuma Ta'ai and Jack Teanby among four Knights out injured for 2023

James Cunningham (concussion), Matty Marsh (wrist), Ukuma Ta’ai (knee) and Jack Teanby (shoulder) will not play again for the Knights this season, whilst a decision is still to be made on Bailey Antrobus.

It’s a bitter blow to the Knights, who have already been hit badly by injury this year.

Former Leeds Rhinos centre Levi Edwards has not featured since their 40-0 thrashing of Swinton Lions in mid-March, and Pauli Pauli is yet to make an appearance under his new head coach amid his recovery from an ACL injury last August.

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Marsh, Cunningham and Ta’ai picked up injuries against Newcastle Thunder, London Broncos, and Toulouse Olympique respectively, whilst Henderson revealed that prop Teanby had elected to play on through the pain of a long-standing shoulder injury for the majority of the season.

The head coach admitted that his latest injury crisis is “unfortunate”, but believes that as his side showed earlier in the season, they can push through to grind out results as the season comes to its conclusion.

“James, to be honest, he’s going to be out for the season," he said.

“He’s seen a specialist and obviously because he’s had a number of concussions in the last 18 months, he won’t be available for the rest of this year.

“That was part of the reason why I brought Taylor Pemberton in, I thought that would be the case.”

“So unfortunately, we won’t see him for the remainder of this season. 

“Ukuma Ta’ai, he’s come back with a Grade 2 MCL. So he’s now likely to be out for the remainder of this year.

“It’s just unfortunate really, but that’s the nature of the beast, I’m afraid. That’s how it is. 

“We’ve freshened up in terms of things mentally, and physically most of the guys have come good, but obviously we’ve picked up a couple of knocks again.

“Ukuma, against Toulouse, he came on and off again after a couple of minutes with his knee. Obviously, the result of that’s not been the best.

“And obviously James took that head knock against London coincidentally having a head clash with Ukuma too and he was knocked out. 

“It’s just a shame, but we live to fight another day. That’s rugby league.”

Bailey Antrobus was set to return this weekend, but suffered a knee injury in training earlier this week. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)

Henderson was also able to provide an update on fan favourite Antrobus, who injured his toe in York’s gutting 22-8 defeat to Batley Bulldogs in their AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Semi Final on July 23.

Whilst the forward had been set to feature at Widnes Vikings on Sunday (3pm), he has suffered a knee injury in training this week.

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“Unfortunately we picked up another knock at training on Tuesday, which is a shame, to Bailey Antrobus,” Henderson explained.

“He was looking good for this weekend but unfortunately it was actually big Pauli Pauli he came into contact with and he just landed awkwardly on the ground after that. 

“I don’t know [the extent of it]. We’ll send him in for a scan now, but he’s aggravated his knee in some way.

“It was just a a training drill that we were doing and he’s just got his body in front of big Pauli. But as he was on the way down, he’s just landed awkwardly and done something to his knee.

“We don’t know exactly the extent at this stage. The initial assessment says that he’s not going to be available this week.

“We have to go send him for further scans and investigation to find out exactly what it is and then we’ll go from there. 

“But I’m really, really gutted for him. He wasn’t the best headspace after that because he had that foot injury that he sustained. We’d kept him out for a few weeks and rested him to go.

“He was all geared up for this weekend to play. So it’s just a shame that he’s not likely to be.”