Sad news but Mick Butterfield is in A&E with a broken metacarpel.

hero today for playing with bad knee.well in mate

Tops marks to the lad today especially carying that knee injury. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Butts says he thinks he broke it after about 20 mins in. Thats some effort.

Fantastic effort.

Absolutely

All the best for a speedy recovery.

Probably wants to play v Workington.

Yeah you're right, just strap a couple of fingers together and get on with it!
We need you Butters!

To all those who know the players far better than I do,who will fill in for him?. I can't see a natural replacement, I know in the modern game most backs can adapt , but can they have the same effect as Butts when he takes the weight off the forwards with some strong carries

I think Stu Sanderson will probably drop back, with Cowling coming back in on the wing (he's filled in out wide in several games before he got injured).

We haven't got a like-for-like replacement for Butterfield.
Certainly nobody who can do the job as well as he can.
Sanderson can 'fill in' on a temporary basis.

So unless something changes and we get a replacement we are going to be severely disadvantaged against Workington, not least because we will have only one winger then as well as a make do full back.

Workington would surely make us pay for that.

Cowling may be able to fill in if his finger has healed, but he will be nowhere near match-fit when he returns, neither will Craig Lawton or Grant Edwards.

It's almost like we need to go out and get an experienced full-back from somewhere (if that can be done), if we are serious about winning this league, because we are looking a bit thread-bare at the moment.

Thanks Donny, I hope Butts does make it but maybe it's time for him to use this injury to get both sorted,the clubs objective ,promotion , is virtually assured,if there is a danger of causing more damage to the knee, the short term gain could cause a long time grievance...... Stand offish, is there a cut off period for bringing someone in?

Probably, I don't really know, but what would a side be expected to do if they couldn't field a fit thirteen, not that we are in that position.
And where would players go if a club went bust near the end of a season?
Is there nobody at Bradford that needs a run-out to stay fit while the club sorts itself out?

I think Waterman has played at full back at York , Cowling if fit could then slot in at centre.

No doubt its a big blow loosing Butts .

I don't think it would be a good idea losing our leading try scorer from the attack to the defence. Our left wing dream combination of Hodson and Waterman would then be defunct and so would the main reason for us being where we are. With all due respect to our right wing attack, which is of course doing its bit.

Out for there months according to his twitter account