Sonny in surgery scare over knee injury
SONNY Bill Williams may need minor knee surgery, according to Toronto coach Brian McDermott.
The former All Black was an absentee from the Wolfpack team that beat Huddersfield 18-0 in the Coral Challenge Cup on Wednesday night to book their place in Monday’s sixth-round draw in New York.
“Sonny Bill has got a little bit of a sore knee at the moment,” McDermott said. “We might have a look at having that operated on.
“He might go have that checked out on Saturday. Fingers crossed, by all accounts it’s going to be a 10-day or two-week job at worst.”
In Williams’ absence, Samoa international Ricky Leutele scored the only tries inside the first 10 minutes to put Toronto on their way to a first win as a Super League club.
The victory was also achieved without ex-England loose forward Jon Wilkin while McDermott opted to use just 14 players, keeping three of his four substitutes on the bench for the entire 80 minutes.
Although Darcy Lussick was included in the 17, McDermott says he was not yet ready to make his return from injury so Gadwin Springer, Adam Sidlow and Anthony Mullally all played long minutes as the Toronto pack mastered both the wet and windy conditions and the Giants forwards to earn the praise of their coach.
“I don’t think our front-rowers have done anything, and after last week’s game when I thought they were passive, the instruction became a bit more colourful but I thought they responded,” he said.