KEIRON Cunningham says Saints are still waiting for the complete picture of Matty Smith’s leg injury – but the scrum half won’t be available in the immediate future.
“Last night the initial results weren’t good,” he explained, “so we have had to get him across to the specialist today. He is going to be out for a period but we aren’t 100 per cent sure of how long that period will be. It is a leg injury and not a good leg injury.
“We will confirm the length of time and the nature of the injury when we know every aspect of it, because we don’t want to pre-empt things too much.
“It isn’t good for the immediate future, but it isn’t season ending.”
Smith suffered the injury in the very last play of the first half in Sunday’s match with Widnes and Cunningham was less than impressed with how it happened.
“It was a disgusting tackle,” he said. “It is one we have been trying to outlaw for three years and in the past we have lost two people with broken legs and three with syndesmosis with that type of tackle. Like everything else we are reactive, never proactive, and now we will probably do something about it.
“We have cited the player (Manase Manuokafoa). It is horrendous. Matty hasn’t got the ball, it has left his hands and the tackle coincides with the next tackle which is when Morgan Knowles is tackled.
“He grabs hold of Matty’s shoulders and drops his legs. You can see his boots; his legs are that far off the ground and he drops 120kg on Matty’s ankles. It is harder to do that tackle than push Matty off the ball.
“Whether there is malice I don’t know but he has gone out to hurt my half back, he has done it and done it royally. Hopefully the League will stand up to it and do something about it.
“The injury is disappointing but it is something we have got used to at this club. We have plenty of decent players around in the juniors and on the sidelines.
“There are options and we’ll see what is best for the team and the immediate future.”
