Young Hull FC forward Will Kirby. (Image: Dave Lofthouse, Hull FC)
Hull FC forward Will Kirby has a suspected MCL, or worse still, ACL, injury after limping off the field in Friday’s Super League defeat to Wakefield Trinity.
The 20-year-old suffered the blow inside the first 15 minutes after an awkward tackle near the Wakefield try line. He was seen on the touchline soon after with his knee strapped up, but he was unable to go back on.
And now Andy Last has confirmed that it could be a serious knee injury for Kirby, who was playing just his seventh senior game after an encouraging recent run in the team.
“It doesn’t look good,” Last said post-match. “It’s his knee, possibly the MCL, maybe even the ACL. He’s in a really, really bad way.
“Hopefully, the scan results come back and we get some good news. He’s already left the ground. He was quite distraught, really, which is terrible for obviously a young lad.”
Kirby was one of three injury blows for Hull, who were defeated 36-10 at the MKM Stadium. Elsewhere, Amir Bourouh and Jed Cartwright didn’t come out for the second half.
Bourouh went off for an HIA, and after passing his checks, he had a vision complaint and the call was made at half-time not to put him back on. As for Cartwright, the back rower tightened up and Hull weren’t willing to risk further injury after recently coming back after such a long lay-off.
“He’s nursing himself back to full fitness,” Last said of Cartwright. “It’s a loading thing with Jed. At half-time, he tightens up in his back and his hamstring.
“He’s had some history obviously with hamstrings, so when it tightens up, it’s just that feeling of, could it go again? That’s something that we’re managing and trying our best with.”
And on Bourouh, Last continued: “He was able to go back on after passing his HIA, but then his vision became impaired and he was really, really struggling to see out there. That was challenging, so we made the call.”
Hull also lost Harvie Hill to a HIA early on. The prop passed his check, with Hull also losing two men to the sin bin in Herman Ese’ese and Jeremiah Mata’utia in what was a heavily disrupted game.
“They really disrupted us,” Last added. “We’ve got a couple of guys who we are nursing back to full fitness from long-term injuries, so that disrupted our ability to rotate them.
“Will played a very, very strong game last week, played big minutes, and he’s also someone who has got some versatility. We can move him to the edge back row to cover for Batch (Joe Batchelor) and Jed.
“At halftime, we were down to one fit body, which was a middle (Hugo Salabio) who doesn’t have much flexibility and versatility in the position he can play. It was a very challenging game.”