Sheridan undergoes surgery on 'nasty' knee injury

Roughyeds have confirmed that scrum half Lewis Sheridan suffered a serious injury in the Law Cup win against Rochdale on Sunday.

Late in the game, Sheridan - who was one of League 1’s most prolific try scorers last year - was stretchered off, after a tackle which the referee put on report.

Sheridan went to Accident and Emergency at the Royal Oldham Hospital where it was confirmed he had dislocated his knee and snapped his patella tendon.

Said club chairman Chris Hamilton: “Myself and Stuart Littler (head coach) were in contact throughout the evening with Lewis, who as well as being in a lot of pain, was upset at the injury so early into his Oldham career.

"He was still in A and E late into the night, waiting for a bed and waiting to hear when the surgeons were going to be able to operate.

“After spending an uncomfortable night, he was told the surgeons would operate on Monday, and they have done.

"It is a particularly nasty injury and, on his x-ray his knee cap was a long way from where it should have been.

“We don’t have any news yet on timescales, the most important thing right now, is getting the operation done successfully and making sure Lewis is looked after and the club will be doing all it can to provide him with support during this difficult time.

“We have sent the best wishes of everybody connected with the club to him and it goes without saying we wish him a speedy recovery.”

Meanwhile, head coach Littler says he has lots to work on to get ready for the upcoming 2023 season.

Roughyeds took back the Law Cup for the first time in three years after they emerged 18-14 victors over the Hornets.

Littler’s men were far from convincing in the win, though, and only took the lead in the dying minutes of the game.

Hornets, who this year are operating under a much-reduced playing budget, exposed faults across the field and gave the Roughyeds boss plenty to mull over.

“We’ve won a trophy, but it was a mixed bag; I thought we dug ourselves into a hole. We came through and managed to get ourselves out of it, but I think we need to be a lot smarter," Littler said.

“The boys got a bit of praise last week; our skill level was pretty high against Widnes and we completed our sets.

“In the first half against Rochdale, our completion rate was at 67%.

"We invited pressure on ourselves and when we got opportunities to build some of our own, we let them off with errors on tackle one.

“I’m glad it has happened now and not in-season.

"There’s loads of learning points identified today on how we can be better.”

Despite a far from perfect performance, Littler was impressed with the progress of Calvin Wellington who missed a large chunk of last season through various injuries and set-backs.

He also had praise for new-boys Deane Meadows and Zac Baker as well as his trusty half-back, Martyn Ridyard.

“I think Martyn kicked well and obviously Calvin is a handful out there, he’s really come on through the off-season, you can tell he’s worked hard at his game.

“Massive credit to Deane Meadows who produced an 80 minute performance and looked good on the back of 72 minutes last week against a competent, strong championship outfit.

“Zac Baker looked pretty strong on the left edge as well and he’s going to be a very useful tool throughout the year.”

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