Paul Rowley confirms Salford duo out “for considerable time”

Salford coach Paul Rowley has revealed the club have suffered two long-term injury blows to centre Tim Lafai and hooker Amir Bourouh.

Samoa international Tim Lafai is facing a long-term spell on the sidelines after picking up a new calf and hamstring injury in last week’s 20-16 loss to Wigan.

Rowley didn’t say a timeframe on Lafai, but expects him to be out for ‘considerable time’.

He said: “Tim Lafai has got a new calf injury and a different hamstring injury. They are new injuries so that will be a couple of months for Tim as well.”

Tim Lafai a huge blow to the Red Devils

Salford were boosted by Lafai’s return from a hamstring strain at Wigan – but he has now suffered a completely different hamstring injury.

Rowley added: “We were gutted that we lost him and it looked bad and then it came back perfectly clear. The specialist said perfectly clear, physio said clear and Tim was happy he was running well.

“Tim is a bit of a physical freak, he came through and was great. It’s totally not connected hamstring and calf injury, the medical staff are quite shocked because you would suspect some correlation between last week’s scan and this week’s scan but the specialist is ensuring that’s not the case.

“Clearly we wouldn’t have put him at risk so it is a rollercoaster. We’ve definitely been punched in the face with this one.

“At the end of the day, anyone would miss someone who featured in the World Cup Team of the Year, a centre who breaks tackles more than anyone else in Super League and has more offloads.

“It is quite detrimental to our attacking prowess so we’ve got to work hard to cover that now for several weeks and keep our fingers crossed that we don’t lose anybody else or else we will be in trouble.”

Paul Rowley confirms hooker’s long-term injury

The Red Devils are expected to be without hooker Amir Bourouh for up to three months due to a shoulder injury.

Rowley said: “Amir has a shoulder injury. He is yet to see his performance specialist but he isn’t too comfortable there.

“If it is what we suspect and what our medical people here suspect then that will need an operation and it’ll be at least three months recovery on that one.”

Rowley said off-season recruit Andrew Dixon is nearing a return over the next few weeks.

The Red Devils host Huddersfield in Round Seven of Super League on Sunday afternoon, 3pm kick-off.

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