Northern Pride may be lucky with injuries

A SURPRISED and relieved Northern Pride coach Ty Williams is counting his lucky stars after scans revealed injuries to two key men were not as serious as expected.

Just 24 hours after he said he wouldn’t risk running either Matthew Musumeci or co-captain Jayden Hodges against the Blackhawks, Williams named both men in his starting side for the Intrust Super Cup rivalry clash.

“I’m very surprised that’s happened,” William said, “but doctors and physios came back with a positive report.”

Both men were sidelined in the first 15 minutes of the 36-6 loss to Wynnum-Manly Seagulls on Saturday, with Musumeci dislocating his right shoulder in the ninth minute, and Hodges, who started for the first time this season, injuring his left knee and ankle five minutes later.

Scans showed the injuries were not as serious as first thought, allowing both to be named for the road trip to Jack Manski Oval.

Musumeci to see specialists to determine if the injury needs surgery. Hodges will wear a moon boot this week, with a decision on his fitness to be made on Friday.

“We might be able to manage that shoulder, he’s going to see a specialist, probably tomorrow to see if we can get through the season with it,” Williams said.

“Obviously we’ll heed the surgeon’s advice, but if he doesn’t require surgery he’ll be able to play the rest of the year with it and then at the end of the year we’ll look at getting him done.

“Hodgo settled down well. “No swelling was showing, could be a sprain. He didn’t limp off the field, he tried to go back on but it wasn’t worth the risk, and Musu wasn’t as bad as what we though.”

Hodges was named at lock, and Chris Ostwald at hooker, as Williams considers starting both of his co-captains for the first time this year.

It’s a system Williams uses in the back end of games, but the coach wants to toughen up the defence as they face a physical Blackhawks pack.

“If he’s available to play, we’d go with the couple of nines we usually do at the back end of the game,” he said. “That’s something we’re probably leaning towards doing at the start of the game.

“The Blackhawks are very big through the middle with their crew with Sam Hoare and Joe Boyce, but also defensively to stiffen up the middle. I thought we were good at the start of last week’s game, but this week we’ll need to have that bit more steel there.”