Damaged knee rules out Ford

Jon Ford

JON Ford, who damaged a knee against North Wales Crusaders, is out of Oldham’s game against Oxford at Whitebank on Sunday.

He missed all the second half as Roughyeds slipped to their first home league defeat for more than two years.

The results of a scan won’t be known until later today, but coach Scott Naylor has already accepted that there is no way Ford will be ready to play again in four days time.

Said Naylor: “We pulled him off on the advice of the physio and he has since had a scan organised by Salford, his full-time employers.

“He doesn’t yet know the extent of the damage, but he certainly won’t be fit by weekend.”

This is the latest of a series of blows to hit the Roughyeds’ backs, starting with the loss of centre Tom Ashton with a serious knee injury in only his second game for the club.

Then George Tyson, who had also been playing centre, was forced to miss the Keighley and Crusaders games because of a two-match ban.

Full-back Steven Nield twisted a knee at Keighley and couldn’t play against Crusaders.

Next came the shock news that winger Jarrod Ward had left the club to take a job in the south of France. Now the jinx has hit Ford.

On a brighter note, Tyson and hooker Gareth Owen are now clear from suspension and both will be available for selection this weekend.

Said Naylor: “We’ve seen footage of the Crusaders game and I tried to explain to the boys what we need to do against the top teams in order to give ourselves a chance.

“We are falling short a little bit against experienced teams who were in the higher Championship division last year.

“The last two games have been a big learning curve for us. It’s nothing we can’t fix.

“It was unfortunate that when we were going into these big games were hit by injury and suspension.”