Really bad news. Injuries are now starting to bite as we knew they would with our thin squad

Given that that's 5 who would be shoe ins in the 17 that are injured plus Sam making that 6, what other clubs would have top level replacements for such on their books for that number of first teamers?
Sure it isn't an ideal situation to be in but both fans and club alike know there will always be a number of injuries or situations that mean a fair few players can't turn out.
I think we've still got a pretty decent 17 even with them out

I agree, while it isn't great news, the injury situation is better than say 2008 when we had to draft in loan players just to make a 19 man squad.

Great shame for Heremaia and a big blow for the club.

Hopefully he'll recover in good time.

good chance for the younger players now - prop could be a problem area. bowden will have to play bigger minutes against the bulls, lynch we know can play the whole game, and whiting may even have another stint up front with aspinwall, who is looking more and more like a decent signing given our problems. horne to fullback and ellis to step into the halves. don't think we should rush yeamo back - unleash him against rovers instead. mckinnon has a groin strain which usually are not long term so he will be looking at easter too, so i would imagine we may be looking at

horne
sharp
martin
turner
briscoe
ellis
seymour
o carroll
houghton
lynch
manu
ticks
aspinwall

bowden
whiting
green?
nicklas?

only 3 players that can be classed as 'overseas' (in the loosest possible term) in that 17 - must be the lowest number for a wee while

Bad news for him, we are lucky that we have a hooker than can do the 80 if required.

Also should give Ellis, Nicklas and maybe even Newton some game time.

This is the result of having nobody come through the Academy in the last couple of years. Bradford have injuries too, but the players replacing them have a good number of matches under their belt in SL whereas our replacements were never given that opportunity

You could put a few clubs in that category with Bradford, including the dobbins. They have probably had more injuries than any team so far but have sufficient cover, especially in the forwards, to manage it.

We sadly do not.

Exactly. We have the same cover, just that our cover never had the opportunity to play SL. Will take us a few years yet to catch up, but we are making progress.

rovers have more cover because they've spent the last 4 or 5 years mopping up the best young talent in the area while our previous board were scrimping on our academy set up