YORK Knights recorded a clean bill of health after last weekend’s defeat at Batley Bulldogs – but there have been setbacks elsewhere.

Andrew Henderson’s side will be hoping to bounce back against Whitehaven at the LNER Community Stadium on Sunday (3pm), with a 22-point deficit too great to overcome at Mount Pleasant last time out, despite late tries from Ukuma Ta’ai, Jordan Thompson and Tom Lineham.

Whitehaven make the long trip to North Yorkshire off the back of an encouraging performance against 2023 League Leaders’ Shield winners Featherstone Rovers, though only have one more win than the Knights to their name heading into Round Seven of the Betfred Championship season.

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But despite the hosts still without full-back Will Dagger, Australian centre Jesse Dee, prop Brenden Santi and long-term absentees Levi Edwards and Bailey Antrobus, there have been no fresh injuries to add to that this week.

“Fortunately, we didn’t pick up any knocks from the weekend, so that was a really important one,” Henderson said with a smile.

“I was starting to get a little bit like ‘if we picked up another couple on Sunday, then it’s really putting us under pressure within the squad with numbers’.

“We’ve come through injury-free from the weekend, and then we may potentially have one or two back for this week.”

The Knights however, could be without former Heworth youngster Charlie Severs for a second week after a setback in his recovery from a concussion sustained against Bradford Bulls.

Despite initially coming back onto the pitch to play out the final minutes of the first half, he then became symptomatic, and has been recovering with parent club Hull FC throughout his return-to-play protocols.

“He’s progressing,” Henderson explained of the 20-year-old forward, who has also turned out at centre and on the wing for the Knights.

“He did have a little bit of a set-back in his return, but he potentially will be available for Sunday. We’re not sure whether he’ll be able to get some training in through the week with us so we’ll have to make a late call on him.

“You can to a degree [return to training after a failed HIA], you progress through each stage. You can’t do anything for so many days, then there’s light skills, then you can do non-contact work, then there’s contact progression.

“Obviously Hull FC are taking care of his concussion protocol stuff at the moment, and at one stage there he’d had a little bit of a setback. It just means that he’s limited now on what he can do for the remainder of this week.

“We’ll make a call on him and whether we decide to use him or not.”

York Press: Jacob Gannon will receive the results of an x-ray this week.Jacob Gannon will receive the results of an x-ray this week. (Image: Craig Hawkhead)

Fellow loanee Jacob Gannon also faces a spell out, with the club set to receive the results from an x-ray this week after limping off against the Bulls.

However, Henderson admits the Leigh Leopards youngster could be unavailable for some time.

“He went and saw a specialist,” he told The Press. “He’s had an x-ray to see if there was any break or fracture there.

“I need to get an update, as he saw the specialist on Monday, so we’re just waiting for a report to confirm exactly what’s what.

“But at the moment, he’s not looking likely to potentially feature for a while.”