Catalan Dragons will go into their opening Super League match at Bradford without a specialist winger.
Blanch, Stacul, Vaccari and Negre all sidelined
Catalan Dragons will go into their opening Super League match at Bradford without a specialist winger.
With last year's leading try-scorer Damien Blanch still recovering from wrist surgery, the Dragons have been rocked by the injuries suffered by French internationals Cyril Stacul and Frederic Vaccari in Saturday's 44-22 friendly victory over London Broncos.
Stacul will be out of action for up to 12 weeks with a broken ankle while Vaccari has seen a specialist amid fears that his knee injury could keep him out for at least two months.
Fellow winger Joseph Negre has already been ruled out for the entire season after rupturing his cruciate ligament while playing for the Catalans' feeder club UTC in the French Championship.
Pretty bad
"He's a young kid coming through who would have made his debut in the first trial," said Dragons coach Trent Robinson.
"We're four wingers down, which is not what we expected but that's footie."
Robinson is likely to play centre Vincent Duport and full-back Clint Greenshields on the wings against the Bulls and will almost certainly need to find a new captain after Gregory Mounis suffered knee cartilage damage against the Broncos.
The loose forward is battling to be fit for the opening game but hooker Eloi Pelissier is facing an eight-week lay-off after breaking his jaw on Saturday.
"He did it in his first tackle but played on for about 30 minutes until the medical staff realised it was pretty bad," Robinson said.
"They are deciding if it needs a plate or a pin but at least he will be able to train while it's healing."
