Fogarty tonic lifts Oldham

OLDHAM RL Club's injury woes could be eased this week with the return to full training of teenage centre Matthew Fogarty.

The highly-promising 18-year-old, a try scorer in the Roughyeds' 40-20 win against Whitehaven on July 3, has been on the injured list since then, first with a damaged elbow and then a broken hand.

He was on the mend from elbow trouble when he hurt his hand at work.

"Matthew has been able to do limited training throughout his lay-off," said coach Tony Benson, "so it won't take him long to be up to speed. We'll be checking him out later in the week to see where he is up to in terms of full fitness."

Benson is confident that winger Shaun Robinson, centre Mark McCully and second-row forward Danny Bravo, who were all knocked about in the 36-14 win against Keighley, will be fit for the clash with Workington Town at Whitebank on Sunday (3pm).

McCully and Bravo received treatment for facial gashes after a clash of heads, while Robinson took a blow to the head from an opponents' knee while making a try-saving tackle near the end of the game.

"It wasn't as serious as it first looked," said Benson. "We took him off, but it wasn't long before he was itching to get back on the pitch again. At that stage of the game, and with another tough one coming up thisweekend, there was no point."

Benson said long-termcasualties Bruce Johnson, David Ellison, Chris Clarke, Lucas Onyango and Mick Fogerty were all working hard to get back as quickly as possible, but none was ready for an early return.

Despite the length of the club's casualty list Roughyeds have won four of their last five games and go into Sunday's clash with Workington on a high and determined to make it 12 wins from 14 outings in all competitions on home soil so far this season.