Fogerty is latest Oldham worry

Mick Fogerty

OLDHAM RL Club’s injury jinx has struck again, this time hitting centre Mick Fogerty (pictured) in his first game of the season against South Wales Scorpions on Sunday.

If a 40-20 defeat in Caerphilly wasn’t bad enough, Fogerty picked up a serious-looking knee injury in his first Roughyeds appearance since last year’s Grand Final defeat by York City Knights in Warrington.

Fogerty signed off with a try in that final and signed on again with a 28th-minute touchdown in his comeback game in Wales before he went down in agony under the weight of a three-man tackle midway through the second half.

Play was delayed for a few minutes before Fogerty was helped from the field. Later he was hobbling around on crutches while waiting to travel back to Oldham on the team coach.

Coach Tony Benson said: “We’ll have a better idea about the full extent of the injury when Mick is examined at training tonight, but it didn’t look good.

“He was in a lot of pain and because the knee was badly swollen the physio needed to let the injury settle down before examining it properly.

“It’s too early to make predictions, but our early fears are that it could be a few weeks of a job rather than a few days.”

This is the latest in a series of injury setbacks that have hit Roughyeds hard this year, mainly affecting senior backs like Lucas Onyango, John Gillam, Marcus St Hilaire and now Fogerty.

Prop Jason Boults was another casualty of Caerphilly. He damaged an ankle in the first few minutes and was led from the field, never to return.

Unlike Fogerty, he was later able to walk unaided but only with the joint heavily strapped. He too will be assessed tonight along with fellow props Dave Ellison (hamstring) and Liam Gilchrist (shoulder).

Roughyeds have a free weekend coming up — their next first-team game is away to Swinton Lions on Friday, May 27 (8pm) — but the Reserves play Leigh Centurions away this Sunday (12.45pm kick off) at Leigh Sports Village in a curtain-raiser to Leigh's Co-operative Championship game.

Oldham fans wishing to watch the reserves game and then leave the stadium must enter and exit through turnstile 3.

They will be charged £16 (adults) and £8 (children), but providing they leave before the first-team game starts they will be refunded £10 and £5 respectively.




LOCAL journalist and former Roughyeds player and Chronicle columnist Kevin Fitzpatrick will be guest speaker at the club’s mid-season dinner, at the Whitebank Stadium on May 26. Entertainment will be provided by local vocalist and comedienne Donna Elson.



Tickets priced £30 or £300 plus VAT for a corporate table of 10 are available from the Roughyeds office on (0161) 628 3677.