YORK City Knights have been dealt a huge blow ahead of their Northern Rail Cup opener on Sunday after player-boss Paul March suffered a suspected broken hand in his side's loss to Leeds Rhinos.

The Knights chief left the field at half-time clutching his hand in the 28-26 loss to the Super League champions' academy outfit and assistant coach James Ratcliffe said the Huntington Stadium-based club feared the worst.

"Paul looks like he has got a suspected broken hand, which is a bit of a disaster," he said. "He has had his X-ray and our doctor is saying it looks like he has broken his metacarpal in his right thumb.

"It will be six weeks, so it is the Northern Rail Cup really. It could be worse. It could have been a leg and, while six weeks is not ideal, it gives someone else an opportunity."

The move leaves Knights light in the half-back area and Ratcliffe was concerned with the way the Knights struggled in the second half in the absence of the former Wakefield man.

He added: "It has shown that we are probably light in the half-back area.

"Both Luke Watling and Danny Grimshaw struggled, I thought, when they went to half-back, so that's something we need to work on in the next couple of weeks.

"It was a frustrating game on the back of a 16-6 penalty count. Some of the decisions absolutely bewildered me."

Ratcliffe said the riot act had been read to the players following the Leeds loss, which he felt was partly down to the side basking in the glory of their hugely creditable display, in defeat, against Wakefield a week ago.

"We're probably guilty of falling in love with ourselves a little bit after the Wakefield game," Ratcliffe added.

"We felt we got a decent result there. It has gone through training this week in the sense that they've dipped a little bit in the attitude which is being demanded of them.

"We've told them the standards need to be higher and, if they are not, they need to look for another club, because we are not going to take sub- standard performances and sub-standard attitudes.

"We have got a lot of work to do next week.

"I fully intend to let them know my feelings again tomorrow night, get a good week's training under our belts and hopefully come with the right attitude - the one we started with back in November."