YORK City Knights have been dealt a blow ahead of Sunday's home game against Sheffield with the news second-row Scott Fletcher has officially left the club.

The Hull-based 28-year-old former BARLA Great Britain captain has had problems recently combining the travelling with new work commitments and so asked to be released from his contract.

In addition, fellow BARLA international Lee Moreton may also leave the club without having ever donned the Knights jersey. The full-back, who signed back in May, has not been a regular at training because he too has had new work commitments in his home city of Hull.

Knights chief executive Steve Ferres confirmed the club had granted Fletcher's release for "personal reasons", adding: "He has made a valuable contribution up to this stage and losing him is a blow."

Injuries combined with difficulty getting to training has meant Fletcher has only played once, as a substitute at Chorley, in the last two months, and it is believed he may now rejoin amateur big-guns West Hull.

He had previously been an ever-present in the Knights line-up, winning two Evening Press/Collier Plant Hire man-of-the-match awards and being the only York player to pick up an Arriva Trains player-of-the-round award for his performance in the defeat of Doncaster in March.

"We've lost three players - Paul Broadbent, Chris Smith and Matt Blaymire - for the season through injury recently and Scott leaving is not a good thing for us. But we've come up against adversity before and we keep bouncing back.

"We keep finding people of quality to add to the squad and improve the squad and these setbacks steel us up."

As for Moreton, who may also rejoin former club West Hull if he does quit Huntington Stadium, Ferres said: "It's unlikely he will play for us because of work commitments.

"He changed his job and can't get to training. Things might change but he might be released as well."

Updated: 14:56 Wednesday, July 23, 2003