John Cartwright is sweating on Hull FC’s back row options after Jordan Lane suffered a broken arm in the Betfred Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat at home to Hull KR.
The 27-year-old was forced off in the first half of the 32-16 loss at the MKM Stadium on Saturday and Cartwright confirmed after the game the extent of the injury.
Lane joins the likes of Jed Cartwright (hamstring), Oliver Holmes and Ligi Sao (both knee injuries) on the sidelines, leaving the Black and Whites boss short on second-row options with a trip to Warrington Wolves and another Hull derby on the horizon.
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“He’s broken his arm,” Cartwright told BBC Radio Humberside. “I’ve had a look at the x-ray and it’s not good for him.
“He’s been a real mainstay of the team for a long time, especially this year for us, and we’ve got real, real issues in the back row at the moment.
“Just about all of our established back-rowers are on the sideline.”
Hull KR suffered a first-half injury blow of their own after Mikey Lewis was forced off with a groin injury, although head coach Willie Peters is cautiously optimistic the reigning Man of Steel will not face too long a spell out as a result.
That saw the Robins forced into a reshuffle where Jez Litten slotted into the halves and Michael McIlorum played the full 80 minutes at hooker.
Litten was subsequently named player of the match and Peters wants to see more of that resilience from his side, who stayed unbeaten in all competitions so far in 2025 as they advanced to the Challenge Cup semi-finals for the third time in as many seasons.
“We’ve got to keep doing it,” Peters told BBC Radio Humberside. “It’s one of those where we handled it in this game and we handled it previously, but I like to think we’ve got a group there which can handle that.
“They train for it, they do scenarios. Mikey has come off before and Jez has gone into the halves, and Micky Mac hasn’t played 80 this year, so it was new to him.
“He’s been playing 30-odd minutes for us each week and doing a hell of a job, and he did that playing 80.
“It’s a good sign for us, but we need to keep doing it because throughout the season a lot of adversity is going to get thrown at you.”
The Betfred Super League’s top two meet again at the MKM Stadium on Good Friday and Cartwright saw enough to be convinced Hull FC are not far behind the standards being set by their cross-city rivals.
“We’re still a side finding our feet, finding some combinations and hopefully improving every week,” Cartwright said following a match which included Will Pryce making his debut in the halves after joining from Newcastle Knights midweek.
“We spoke after the game how they’re the benchmark, but I don’t think we’re all that far away.
“We need to be playing close to our best but this, unfortunately, wasn’t.”
HULL FC 16 (L Martin, H Ese’ese, Z Hardaker tries, W Pryce 2 goals) lost
HULL KR 32 (T Davies, J Burgess 2, J Broadbent, J Litten tries, J Litten 6 goals)
Referee: C Kendall
