Leigh Centurions have received a major injury blow after discovering that James Clare will miss almost the entirety of the season with an ACL injury.
The versatile back only joined the club last month following the liquidation of his former club, Bradford Bulls.
However, his season is all but finished before making his professional debut for the club after sustaining the injury in a pre-season game with Dewsbury.
Initially, the club had hoped it wouldn’t be serious, but scans last week showed the severity of the injury.
“We have had some bad news concerning an injury to James Clare in the Dewsbury game,” Jukes said.
“Unfortunately James has his scan result back which shows he has an ACL injury. As the scan is worse than we expected this will rule him out for most if not all of the season.
“This is in addition to losing Gregg McNally for between 10 to 12 weeks after his injury in the Wigan game.
“It was vitally important that acted upon the situation and certainly given that we were already a bit light in the outside backs area. We were in danger of losing that edge of competition for places in that area which is vital in all departments.”
