Winger doubt for Shield opener

RICHARD LEPORI . . . on road to recovery

RICHARD Lepori, with a badly-gashed hand, wasn't the only injury victim in Oldham's fiercely-fought Championship relegation battle with Workington Town.

It has since emerged that Adam Clay suffered a grade-two tear in a shoulder when tackled heavily by Town's star man Jarrod Sammut early in the second half.

Town's talisman half-back failed to put a penalty into touch. Clay collected the ball just inside the touchline and moved infield where Sammut's tackle caused Clay's legs to go above the horizontal.

The Roughyeds winger went down heavily on his shoulder and Sammut was penalised for an illegal tackle.

Clay completed the game on the wing, but with only one strong arm he was severely restricted with the game finely balanced at 20-18 in the Cumbrians' favour. They went on to win 32-30.

The medical team at Huddersfield Giants, Oldham's partner club, have since told him that he suffered a grade-two tear when his shoulder hit the hard ground first and took the full impact.

The Giants' medics spent a lot of time with him before sending him away with an extensive rehab programme which will cover two more weeks.

Whether he will play in the opening Shield game on August 7 ­- see Chronicle website for fixtures ­- is not clear at this stage but, if not, he should be ready for the following weekend.

ROUGHYEDS have apologised to fans for having no programmes at the last two league games. It was due to circumstances beyond their control, they said, and steps would be taken to make sure it didn't happen again.

MR and Mrs Newby (Dobcross), Phil Hunt (Oldham) and Robert Hunt (Rochdale) each won a pair of tickets for Bower Fold match-day sponsors' suite places in ORSA's annual-meeting draw.