depends on the degree of damage , if its a minor tear , key hole surgery can clean it up and he will only be out around 3-4 weeks

He twittered this earlier

I just got the results of my scan. I have torn some cartilage in my knee. Everything else looks ok apart from my receding hairline

From what's being reported, it should be a matter of weeks rather than months, which is good news. At least it's a new injury as opposed to a recurrence, which would have been a bigger worry given Pat's age. Hopefully he'll be back for the trip to Huddersfield

And give his other injury more time.

I assume it depends on how much of the cartilage is torn, because by the sounds of it he's going to be out for a few weeks rather than months. I tore almost all of my cartilage in my right knee and it was a few months before I could even jog and was adviced to not squat for at least 6-12 months. So like I said I assume it depends of the severity of the tear.

Play Gelling against Fev.

The possible replacements are Gelling, King and Russell and in terms of performances that would be the order in which they'd be selected.

Pemps, have you learnt nothing recently? Playing good players, especially if they are foreign, against Fev is equivalent to destroying all things Rugby League.

Rubbish. Play this Tonkins lad.

Is this Tonkins any good and is he foreign we can not up set anymore Fev supporters.

Good opportunity for Gelling this. He's got talent for rugby and now just needs to find a talent for getting out of his bed and in to training on time.

Hopefully Richards will be no more then a month and can be back during this tough run of fixtures we have coming back. Him missing a month would be fantastic considering how bad he looked yesterday!

If it's a minor tear then it's key hole, couple of weeks for stitches to fix and a couple more to regain full movement and the like. No real muscle or fitness loss as the time out is so short.