Leigh Leopards full-back Bailey Hodgson is likely to miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury, head coach Adrian Lam has said.
The 23-year-old got an infection in the bone on his elbow and had surgery, with a specific timeframe for his absence still to be determined.
Hodgson most recently played for Leigh on 4 July in their Super League win against Warrington and has made 11 appearances this season.
“He has had a second operation on his elbow this week and that doesn’t look good,” Lam told Radio Manchester.
“It might be long term and potentially season-ending for him as he’s had a bit of the bone taken away and we’ll get some information come in now so we’ll know a little bit more about that.”
Hodgson joined Leigh from NRL side Newcastle Knights ahead of last season but has struggled with the injury since he was in Australia.
“He’s had an issue with it in the past at Newcastle and he’s had a plate put in there with some screws but during one of our games about three weeks ago he got a cut through there and it got infected and he got ill from it,” Lam added.
“It was one of those dangerous ones and a potential career-ending sort of injury was the feedback from medical.
“It doesn’t look good, they’ve had to go into his bone and get the majority of that out.”