YORK City Knights were today praying their centre crisis was not getting worse after both Neil Law and Rob Spicer were having hip injuries checked out.

The Knights are already without centres Dan Potter, Chris Spurr and Mark Cain, while Mark Blanchard, who can also play in that position, was among the ten injured players sitting out yesterday's 34-24 loss at Halifax.

Law and Spicer have already missed games this year and now face an anxious wait after they received new blows at the Shay.

Trialist Dean Ripley, who initially came to the club because of the centre shortage, was earmarked for a substitute role at half-back yesterday but made his debut when replacing Law in the second half.

The 22-year-old new-boy was a shock inclusion in the Knights' squad, his recruitment having not been made public. A stand-off by trade, he was in Castleford's Academy for five years and broke through into the Super League first team for half-a-dozen games in 2004, playing at centre, before moving to Featherstone last season only to have his season cut short by injury.

Boss Mick Cook said: "He's big mates with Phil Hasty and asked for a trial. He's played centre and at the time we had only one fit centre and that was Rob Spicer, who's not an out-and-out centre. He's come down and done okay."

Updated: 10:26 Tuesday, April 18, 2006