Injury mars great victory

DAVE Ellison is attended to by medical staff from Oldham and Whitehaven.

OLDHAM prop Dave Ellison may have played his last game of the season after severely dislocating an elbow in yesterday’s superb 40-20 Co-operative Championship One win against Whitehaven at Whitebank.

It was the Roughyeds’ third victory in a row, ending the Cumbrian side’s eight-match unbeaten run.

Ellison’s injury, however, took some of the gloss off the celebrations. The dislocation was so severe that the game was held up for 15 minutes until the player was carried away by stretcher to wait for the ambulance.

Accompanied by Oldham chairman Chris Hamilton, he was taken to the Royal Oldham Hospital where doctors battled to get the joint back into place.

“They thought at one stage that Dave would need a general anaesthetic,” said Mr Hamilton. “But in the end they were able to get it back without having to take that course of action.

“He is likely to be in plaster for four to six weeks, at the end of which doctors will want to know what damage, if any, has been caused to the nerves and blood vessels.

“It is far too early yet to make any predictions about how long he will be out, but it’s clearly going to be several weeks at the very soonest.”

This is the latest in a long line of serious injury setbacks which have hurt Roughyeds this season.

Ellison joins Lucas Onyango, Mick Fogerty, Chris Clarke and Bruce Johnson on the long-term casualty list, while John Gillam and Tom Wood-Hulme are only now ready for action again after months on the sidelines.

Another casualty yesterday was teenage centre Matthew Fogarty, who hurt an elbow at Gateshead the week before and then aggravated it again in the Whitehaven game when falling heavily after leaping high to take a cross-field kick and score.

It isn’t known yet whether the injury will keep him out of Saturday’s game against London Skolars at The Stoop (5pm), but it was bad enough to warrant a hospital check, the results of which won’t be known until later.

John Hough’s reserve team are in action at Whitebank on Thursday against Featherstone Rovers when they will be seeking their sixth win in a row, kicking off at 7.45pm.