York will be back in Championship action this Sunday, June 1 when Sheffield Eagles visit the LNER Community Stadium (3pm), with Mark Applegarth’s side turning their focus back to the league after their AB Sundecks 1895 Cup semi-final success.
Applegarth’s squad have been allowed a week off from matches to recover due to a gap in their schedule, but concerns are still lingering for Knights star Galeano after the winger struggled with a dead leg in that 1895 Cup victory over Bradford Bulls.
The Knights Head Coach does have hope that Galeano will recover in time for the Sheffield contest, whilst he has also been welcoming back a number of familiar faces into light training.
“The only issue we have is potentially Scott, with his dead leg still,” Applegarth reported.
“I think that he will be good, it’s just a little bit tender. Apart from that, it’s just the standard wounds.
“Will Dagger is back running, so I think he should be about three weeks away.
“Bailey Antrobus is back in non-contact, so he’s probably a couple of months away.
“Mitch Clark is back training with us, but again, he’s got a little bit longer to go with his torn pectoral. It’s been really good, he’s [Clark] had a bit of a mini pre-season.
“You never want to see players injured, but Mitch’s partner is due to give birth any time now, so hopefully he can enjoy that experience with his family and with his loved ones.
“Hopefully he can come back ready to rip into this back end of the year for us.
“There’s always going to be a few more speedbumps, I’m under no illusions that there will be a few hiccups along the way.
“Injuries come in when you don’t want them, that’s the nature of the game.
“Apart from that, we’re pretty much the same as we were before this break.”
An absentee from York’s 1895 Cup progression beyond Bradford was Ben Jones-Bishop, who missed the contest due to being cup-tied.
Jones-Bishop, who scored four tries the week prior against Hunslet, is now available to play again: “Yes, Bish is back. I was obviously gutted for him that he couldn’t play, but he’ll be back available and in contention for Sunday.”
That 28-20 triumph over Bradford confirmed a spot at Wembley Stadium for the 1895 Cup final for the Knights, who will turn their attentions to a shot at silverware against Featherstone Rovers the weekend following on from the Sheffield match.
Applegarth refused to let the prospect of the Wembley cup final affect his selection however, insisting that he would choose what he believes to be his best team available for the clash with Sheffield.
“Every game is important to me, so I will put out my strongest team possible for any game possible,” Applegarth explained.
“It’s as simple as that, I’ve always said to players that I will pick on performances and on how you’re training, because I expect a standard in training and a certain intensity in training.
Mitch Clark is back in light training with York Knights after suffering a torn pectoral. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) “That goes right from my captain in Liam Harris, to one of our more experienced players in Paul McShane, and to one of our youngest in Jack Brown.
“I expect a certain standard, there will be no one getting rested as I am not a massive fan in that, I don’t believe in that sort of thing.
“That’s just my philosophy, I am greedy and I want to take whatever I can when I can.
“To beat Sheffield Eagles, we need our best team out there because they will be wanting to right a few wrongs in terms of their own season.
“We’ve got to be aware of what they’re going to bring, and make sure that we be the best version of what we can be.”
The progression of Dagger, Antrobus and Clark sees another three players nearing in on recoveries after long spells on the sidelines.
Applegarth went into detail on how he elects to choose whether a player can be deemed fit and available for a squad, with the help of the medical team ensuring that no player trains or plays whilst remaining injured.
He told the Press: “Weekly we get updates. For example, if someone has got a knee injury or a muscle strain, it gets graded as a one, two or three.
“A grade one, you get a rough bracket, grade two you get another bracket and a grade three it will roughly be 12 weeks plus.
“From there you can kind of start putting a loose schedule in, but players heal at different rates so the physio and the medical team tell me how they are going with their rehab.
“Obviously we see it for ourselves, Will Dagger for example, he tends to be a quick healer, so if he gets told 12 weeks off of a surgeon, then you know that he will be coming back in roughly 10 weeks with how his injury record looks.
“Other players are the opposite of that and need a week or two longer, but we get a rough time frame of how long they will be and then we get a gradual return to training.
“Once they are back in training, they get a checklist to go through to make sure they can return to play – that is all taken care of by the performance department.
“When they feel that they are ready to go back into full training, they’ll tell us that they are ready for selection again.
“It’s onto you as a coach whether you pick them or not.”
Jack Teanby was a player that temporarily switched away from York this week, having left the Knights to join Betfred League One outfit Keighley Cougars on an initial two-week loan.
“There are some really good players who are currently not playing, Jack being one of them.
“It’s important that Jack gets game time and he got offered the move to Keighley, which the player wanted to take and we were happy to accommodate.
“It’ll be good for both parties just to get him some game time.”
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