YORK Knights head coach Andrew Henderson admits that the shortage of his side’s available half-backs is causing him a bit of a headache.

Liam Harris is one of the Knights’ only half-back options at present, with usual partner Ata Hingano out with a hamstring strain suffered in the Knights’ 48-12 triumph against Betfred Championship rivals Batley Bulldogs last month, Brendan O’Hagan having left the club for Australia, and Jamie Ellis still on the treatment table after a long-term pectoral tear injury.

READ MORE: Henderson issues injury update ahead of Bulls clash

To add further insult to injury, new signing James Cunningham, who can play in a variety of positions across the halves, was also forced off with a knee injury in the Knights’ 12-19 loss against Widnes Vikings on Sunday. 

“If I’m honest, it has been a headache,” Henderson admitted.

“We have had no half-back combinations in training at all through pre-season.

“I had Brendan O’Hagan in training for a week, Liam Harris was away because he was getting married, so he missed the first week.

“Hingano was getting back from that ankle injury, so [he] did nothing on the ground for November and December because he had a previous ankle injury that we had to try to get right.

“We had O’Hagan there for one week and then he flew back to Australia, then Harris came back in the week after O’Hagan had gone back. 

“Harris trained for about a week but then he was having some sort of dizzy spells and wasn’t feeling right, so he missed a couple of weeks with that.

“I was using all sorts of players to fill a gap there just so we could teach some of the players. I think we had Jesse Dee out there, we had Myles Harrison running in there at times, that’s naturally what we had.

“Obviously Jamie Ellis hasn’t featured at all in pre-season because he was recovering from a torn pec, so that’s how it is.

“We got Liam Harris back on the ground so we were working with him then for a few weeks in the December period, then he went away on his honeymoon, which was already granted by the club.

“I’ve had to deal with that bit of disruption.

“We come back in January and Hingano is back on the training field, Harris is back on the training field, they’re both training together and starting to build a little bit of a partnership.

“O’Hagan flies back in but then he drops the bombshell that he’s going, so we didn’t get any opportunity to integrate him really back into training.

“Then Hingano obviously breaks down in that second friendly against Batley, where the plan was to play him for 40 minutes and then he pulls up with a hamstring strain a minute before half-time.

“You just couldn’t write it!

“I managed to get James Cunningham in and he gets two sessions at half-back training, with Liam going into the first game and then he gets injured.

“The rugby gods are just not with us at the moment, that’s for sure!”