Andrew Heffernan has been ruled out for the rest of the season following a string of concussions.
The 23-year-old hasn’t played for over two months, last playing in the club’s 31-12 victory over Widnes.
Tim Sheens has now confirmed why the centre has been absent, with specialists advising the 23-year-old not to play again this year.
“Heffernan won’t play again this season,” Sheens said.
“It’s a big blow for the player and the club. We started with him and Thomas Minns playing in the centres really well. We had so many options there but we’ve had to manufacture that position since losing both of them.
“We brought Junior Vaivai in and he’s finding his feet now, and Liam Salter, but we’ve lost Minns and Heff for the rest of the year. The specialist has told Heff not to play for the rest of the year.
“At the moment it’s taking care of his health which is the main aim. He can’t do anything to inflame the situation, no contact training but he can train. It depends on how he pulls up with headaches etc. then he doesn’t train.”
The nature of Heffernan’s injury has left inevitable concern over his long-term career, but Sheens said it wasn’t the right time to comment on that.
“I don’t want to address that just yet,” he said.
“It’s a wait-and-see injury, you can’t put your finger on it.
“It’s not a cruciate ligament for example and he’ll be back in x amount of weeks. It’s an injury which is really starting to surface a lot over the last few years.
“To consider when a player can and can’t play with these types of injuries is out of our hands. It is neurosurgeons which make those decisions.
“We have had him into London to see specialists and have scans, and the specialist said in three months we’ll talk again.”
