Hull FC’s triple injury blow with Jed Cartwright withdrawal explained

Hull FC have a string of new injury concerns after another difficult defeat.

The Black and Whites went down comfortably to Wakefield Trinity, though their cause was not aided by three injuries all suffered in the game.

Will Kirby went off in the opening 12 minutes with a knee injury, Amir Bourouh had an eye issue and Jed Cartwright was withdrawn with tightness at half-time.

It left Andy Last’s side badly down on troops, an all too familiar situation at the MKM Stadium.

Kirby’s injury appeared serious, though when speaking to Sky Sports, Last suggested the youngster’s setback might not be as bad as anticipated.

“He wanted to go back on but there was too much instability in that knee so we made a decision,” Last expained.

“Then Jed Cartwright stiffened up at the half-time and felt as though he was unable to go back out there and then we lost Amir Bourouh just to a poke in the eye, his vision was obviously impaired. We ended up with one substitution left in the second half and obviously that was a big middle, so we just had to roll those middles and there were some guys out there who were tightening up and probably could have done with getting a tap on the shoulder but we were just down to one substitution left.

“It was tough but we managed to make a contest of it and you can’t ask for any more than that.”

In better news, Last confirmed Lewis Martin is available for selection while Zak Hardaker will come back into contention for next week’s game with Wigan Warriors.

Last on Hull FC’s performance

Last admitted that Hull’s first-half display was their downfall, criticising their lack of intensity.

“It wasn’t happening in the first half. I didn’t think we got our intent right, I didn’t think we got our tackling right and they just rolled us up the field far too easily.

“And then we make errors coming out of yardage which allows them to dominate field position and we just didn’t do a good enough job.

“At half-time we spoke about that and when we actually got to the end of our set to kick the ball a little bit better and front-loaded out, we made a good fist of it in that second half but the first half wasn’t to the standards that we expect. Obviously Herman gets sin-binned and then Jeremiah gets Sin-binned and that proved costly on the scoreboard.

“We just said the game’s a simple one, if you don’t get that physical challenge right, you make it a really, really tough day for yourself. And they were able to just roll us 90 metres on the ground. I thought the mobility and footwork of their middle unit was really, really telling tonight.

“We’ve got a little bit to fix up, I thought we were really, really spirited in that second half and we didn’t allow the scoreboard to run away from us but there are certain things we need to do better.”