England head coach Wayne Bennett has confirmed that James Graham will miss their all-or-nothing Four Nations clash with Scotland through injury.
The Canterbury Bulldogs forward has suffered a medial tear that has ruled him out of the game against Coventry, although he is expected to be fit in time for the game against Australia next week.
Graham’s absence will likely see Hull FC’s Scott Taylor play against the Bravehearts, having impressed on debut against France in England’s Four Nations warm-up match.
“James Graham won’t be available for selection this weekend,” Bennett said.
“He’s got a small medial tear but he should be alright for next week. Sam was just a precautionary measure from training, there’s a bit of soreness but he trained this morning.”
Meanwhile, the England chief confirmed that everyone in the squad who hadn’t played against New Zealand would feature against the Scots, with Leeds’ Stevie Ward an exception.
That means the likes of Mark Percival, Kevin Brown and Liam Farrell could all be handed places in the 17-man squad, along with Stefan Ratchford and George Williams.
“I’m not going to make too many changes but I want to make sure I’ll give everyone in the squad a game and I’ll make sure I do that this weekend. Stevie Ward is the one exception from the group who won’t play.
“We want another game playing together and getting used to each other. We did a lot of things right at the weekend; we’re not way behind, we’ve just got to tidy up some areas. The number one thing we can’t do is beat ourselves up. Structure-wise and the way we both attacked and defended, it was fine.”
