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Bailey Hodgson’s season – and his Leigh career – could be over after having a second surgery on an elbow issue Adrian Lam admits was feared to be career-threatening at one stage.
Hodgson will switch to Hull FC at the start of next year after agreeing a long-term deal to sign with Steve McNamara’s side. However, he may now have played his final match for Leigh.
The outside back picked up an elbow issue several weeks ago which became infected. That led to Hodgson falling ill and requiring time out of the team, before ultimately going back under the knife this week.
Leigh are still waiting for a definitive diagnosis: but Lam admits it does not look good.
Bailey Hodgson’s season set to be over
Speaking on his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Lam conceded that the surgery looks like it may end Hodgson’s year due to the fact some bone has had to be removed to correct a long-standing issue.
He said: “It’s been a crazy year considering what we’ve been through. We’ve not had our strongest team out and it looks like that’ll be the case again this week.
“Bailey Hodgson has had a second operation on his elbow this week and it doesn’t look good, that might be long-term and season-ending. He’s had a bit of the bone taken away so we’lll know more about that later this week. It’s just another story of this season for us.”
Lam then admitted that the issue was so severe, Leigh were fearing it could have ended his career given the serious nature of Hodgson falling ill.
“He’s got a bit of a bump on his elbow,” Lam explained.
“He’s had some issue with it in the past at Newcastlea and he’s had a plate put in there. During our game three weeks ago he got a cut and it got infected and he fell ill, so it was a dangerous one.
“It was a potential career-ending injury, that was the feedback from the medical team – if it was a little bit of poisoning on the bone for example and everything that comes along with it. He’s only come out of surgery yesterday so we’re getting information as we go. But it doesn’t look good. They’ve had to go into his bone and get the majority of it out so we’ll have clarification on it later on.”
Hodgson hospitalised due to surgery
Hodgson has actually been in hospital for well over a week – and Lam admits the player is ‘struggling’ as it looks increasingly likely his Leigh career has been cut short.
“He’s been in hospital for 10 days,” Lam said.
“He’s struggling because he’s had some bad luck over the last two years here. He was coming back from a PCL injury and he was playing some great rugby. A big part of how we’ve grown as a team has been down to him, especially when he replaced Davey Armstrong (last year) – to get us 80 minutes from Old Trafford, he played a massive part in that.”
There is better news elsewhere for Leigh, though. Joe Ofahengaue, Andy Badrock and Robbie Mulhern will come back into the squad to face Warrington Wolves this weekend.
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