Leeds Rhinos captain Danny McGuire left Headingley with a knee brace on after limping out of last night’s defeat to Warrington.
The 33-year-old suffered the injury in the first-half and didn’t return to action after trying to run it off.
The extent of the injury remains unclear, but McDermott is hopeful that it isn’t too serious.
“I’m not sure how Danny is,” McDermott admitted.
“He’s done something but I’m not going to speculate. He tried to run it off so you’d imagine it’s not bad but he’s got a brace on so we’ll know more tomorrow.
McDermott added: “It was a tough game to start with; there were one or two things that we wanted to be good at and we were, and there were more positives in it than negatives – but if you’re going to accuse our performance of anything it lacked cohesion and fluency.
“Both teams defended really well with lots of energy and you could tell it was their first hit out – but they really went for it. It opened up in the second half but like I said, there’s a fair few positives to take from it even though it was a loss.
“We’re mindful of the World Club Challenge and we’re hopeful we’ll be ready for North Queensland, but we’re preparing for other things at the moment – it’s not something we’re worrying about right now. That night will be special in its own right.”
Inevitably, McDermott was questioned about Leeds’ playmakers, to which he gave an honest response about the performances of Liam Sutcliffe and Jordan Lilley in particular.
“Along with a few other people out there I thought Sutty was rusty; it was his first competitive game in a while after such a long time out, and he’ll get better – but I thought he was very rusty.
“I’m waiting for Jordan Lilley to look out of his depth if I’m being honest. He played a few games last year and then he played that game against New Zealand, and he seems to really handle things superbly. If you saw him around the place in a pair of jeans and some trainers you’d think he was a randomer, but he’s got such a great footballing brain. He sees things out on the field – and that’s something that’s really hard to coach.”
