Wednesday 11 March 2020 23:45, UK
Sonny Bill Williams may need minor knee surgery, according to Toronto Wolfpack coach Brian McDermott.
The former All Black was an absentee from the Wolfpack team that beat Huddersfield 18-0 in the Coral Challenge Cup on Wednesday night to book their place in Monday's sixth-round draw in New York.
"Sonny Bill has got a little bit of a sore knee at the moment," McDermott said. "We might have a look at having that operated on.
"He might go have that checked out on Saturday. Fingers crossed, by all accounts it's going to be a 10-day or two-week job at worst."
In Williams' absence, Samoa international Ricky Leutele scored the only tries inside the first 10 minutes to put Toronto on their way to a first win as a Super League club.
The victory was also achieved without ex-England loose forward Jon Wilkin while McDermott opted to use just 14 players, keeping three of his four substitutes on the bench for the entire 80 minutes.
Although Darcy Lussick was included in the 17, McDermott says he was not yet ready to make his return from injury so Gadwin Springer, Adam Sidlow and Anthony Mullally all played long minutes.
Among the unused substitutes was France international Tony Gigot, whose initial month-long trial expires this weekend, and McDermott admits the club have some work to do on their salary cap to make his stay a permanent one.
Centre Chase Stanley was able to make his first appearance of the season following the release of Gary Wheeler and McDermott says he needs to further strengthen his team in order to avoid relegation.
"We're trying to create some cap space and we're moving things about in the squad," he added.
"We need to do further re-jigging of the squad because I don't believe what we've got at the moment will be enough to stave off relegation.
"I've got to make some really tough decisions because whoever makes room, they are all good blokes, but these things have got to be done."
