York Knights' Jimmy Keinhorst and Brenden Santi in contention for Dons

The Knights will be hoping to get one back on the Dons, who ran out comfortable 36-20 victors in South Yorkshire on the opening weekend of the Betfred Championship season back in March.

But they head into the encounter in a buoyant mood, having thumped Barrow Raiders 54-12 last weekend, and only lost once under their new head coach.

Whilst Keinhorst missed their rout of the Raiders in order to attend the funeral of former Leeds Rhinos teammate Rob Burrow, Santi was ruled out through illness.

Head coach Mark Applegarth admitted that there had been a sickness bug throughout his camp - which also affected influential Tongan half-back Ata Hingano - but he is confident that the Italian prop will be well enough to return this weekend.

“We had a bit of a flu bug going through the camp last week,” he explained.

“Brenden, he was on death’s door, he was really struggling. But he trained last night and he seemed back to normal, so hopefully we won’t get any more knocked out with that.

“Apart from that, it’s pretty much as you were.

“Obviously Jimmy Keinhorst will be back in contention after missing last week due to Rob’s funeral and Ukuma [Ta’ai] is  getting there - he should be a week or two off.

“We’re getting back to where we need to be, but we’ll just focus on whoever’s fit and put our best foot forward.”

“Touch wood,” the head coach hopes that nobody else in his squad has been affected by the bug.

“I don’t want to tempt fate, but touch wood everyone seemed okay last night,” Applegarth added. “But we’ll see, you can never say never with it.

“It got us pretty bad last week, but we didn’t want to use that as an excuse. It’s one of them, the next man up, and then you do what you can do.

“If someone’s not available, they’re not available and you’ve just got to get on with the job. 

“We’ll see what this week brings. I’m sure there’s going to be a couple of surprises, there always is in professional sport, but that’s part of the fun isn’t it.”

Prop Ukuma Ta'ai is a couple of weeks away in his return from a pulled hamstring. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

Prop Ukuma Ta’ai has been sidelined for the last two matches after pulling his hamstring during last month’s historic comeback at Featherstone Rovers.

The 37-year-old had been enjoying some of his best form for the Knights in the weeks before his injury - including scoring twice- with Applegarth expecting to welcome him back over the coming weeks.

Despite last week criticising the time taken for the forward to receive a scan on his hamstring, the head coach has been pleasantly surprised by its result.

“It was better than we thought, if I’m honest,” he admitted.

“It’s just going to be a case of now making sure that Ukuma is confident in his injury, that our medical team is happy with him and then gradually returning him to training - passing all of those protocols that you’ve got to get through.

“When you’ve got a player that’s as important to you than Ukuma is to us, it’s really important that you don’t rush him back and end up back at square one and you’re scratching your head saying ‘why did we do that!’

“He’s good, he’s a really good guy is Ukuma. He leads well, speaks well to the group and is a very well loved and liked member of the group.

“He’s in good spirits, keen to get back out on the field as you’d expect, but he is in good spirits.”

Winger AJ Towse is 'there or thereabouts' in his injury return. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

Applegarth though revealed youngster AJ Towse is “there or thereabouts” after pulling his hamstring during the Knights’ extraordinary comeback at Swinton Lions at the end of May.

The club’s 2023 top-scorer made their preliminary squad for last weekend’s visit of Barrow but was only a water boy, with Brad Ward instead retaining his spot on the left wing.

Fan favourite Bailey Antrobus is also moving in the right direction as he steps up his return from an ACL rupture.

Applegarth explained: “AJ is there or thereabouts, he’s back training with us now.

“Apart from him, we’re pretty much the same as last week. 

“We’ve got a couple of long-term injuries with Jesse [Dee] and whatnot, Bailey’s not fit yet.

“We’re getting there, but there’s still some key names due to come back over the next month or two.”