Huddersfield could be without winger Jermaine McGillvary for a number of weeks after the England international suffered a torn hamstring in their friendly defeat at Wakefield on Thursday night.
Giants coach Simon Woolford admitted that they are set to be without McGillvary for an ‘extended period’ after the winger left the field during the opening exchanges of their final pre-season friendly before their Super League campaign begins against Salford next Friday.
“He’s no good,” Woolford said.
“He’s going to be out for an extended period. It’s not a minor hammy injury, it’s going to be quite a big one. That’s the only real negative tonight, and with Leroy (Cudjoe) out already, we couldn’t afford to lose Jermaine.”
When asked for a prognosis, Woolford replied: “It could be six to 12 weeks according to the early diagnosis from the doc. You’re never totally sure until you scan it, but it’s possible it could be long-term. Someone is going to have to step up for round one, and probably the first half a dozen rounds, to be honest.”
With Darnell McIntosh initially handed the number one shirt for this season and impressing at fullback thus far, Woolford admits he’s not sure who is likely to replace McGillvary on the wing for the start of the season.
“We’ve got some young kids on the way through but we don’t know if they’re quite ready yet,” he said. “We’ll have to work on what we do without Jerry. We’ve put Darnell to fullback and he’s doing a good job, so I’m not too sure whether we bring one of the kids in on the wing or something else.”
The Giants were handed three team warnings inside the opening hour of Tuesday’s 28-24 defeat at Wakefield by referee James Child – which resulted in yellow cards for Jordan Turner and Joe Wardle. And Woolford admitted he was at a loss to explain why they were placed on team warnings so quickly.
“I’ve never seen a team warning in the first six minutes – it’s ridiculous,” he said.
“I’ve got to take that up with Steve Ganson; whether they had the view we were ill-disciplined, I don’t know – but for a friendly, I thought it was over the top. But we’ll get some feedback during the week.”