YORK KNIGHTS hooker Tom Inman has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
The 23-year-old, who has turned out for Halifax and Newcastle as well as the Knights this season, will undergo surgery on a cartilage issue sustained in the loss to Leeds last month.
Inman had cemented himself as York’s starting hooker, making his 100th career appearance against the Rhinos, but head coach Mark Applegarth has confirmed that his season has come to a premature end.
“Tom has got some knee cartilage issue with his meniscus,” he said.
“We don’t expect it to affect him too much, but it means that he’ll miss this last two weeks.
“He did it in the Leeds game really early doors, but being Tom, he didn’t flag it up until after the game.
“His knee started seizing up a little bit, and when we got it scanned, it turned out there was some damage to his meniscus, so he’ll need that trimming and just tidying up.
“It’s not massive surgery, but at the same time, you’ve still got to give him time to recover.
“We’ll get him patched up and ready to go for pre-season.”
There is however better news for winger David Nofoaluma, who will return to contention for Saturday’s trip to Catalans after missing the loss at Wakefield through illness.
And having welcomed back Ben Jones-Bishop from a foot fracture against Trinity, competition for places is a luxury Applegarth is relishing.
“We’ve got some good selection headaches, and that’s exactly how we’re trying to design the squad to do,” he admitted.
“It’s whoever is competing the hardest in training and nailing those moments, transferring what they do in training into games.
“Ultimately, whoever does that gets to keep their shirts, don’t they?
“If you’re doing that in games, nine out of ten times it means you’re winning.”