Moore surgery blow for Batley

Batley are likely to be without half-back Gareth Moore for a long period after a planned shoulder operation was postponed.

Moore, 22, played the final month of last season with a shoulder injury, and was due to have surgery earlier in December.

He and centre Danny Maun, who is due to have knee surgery in January, are both on the sidelines as John Kear gets his side ready for the Championship kick off in February.

Kear told the club’s official website: “In general, we feel that the pre-season stuff has gone very well so far.  We are more advanced at this stage of our preparation than we were 12 months ago in terms of fitness, structure and skill levels, but the obvious blots on the landscape are the injury situations for Danny Maun and Gareth Moore.  

“Gareth’s operation has been pulled now, but unfortunately that’s the situation with an NHS operation.  Don’t get me wrong – the NHS in brilliant in the main – but they seem to place a low priority on sports operations and that is frustrating.

“It means we have to look at new options now – Danny will miss around 3-4 games but Gareth is likely to be missing for some time.  We are well covered in the centres with the likes of Ayden Faal available and we will look at Tom Hemingway and Danny Whitmore in the coming weeks in the warm-up games at half-back.”

The Bulldogs take on local rivals Dewsbury Rams in the traditional Heavy Woollen derby Boxing Day fixture next week.