Keighley Cougars' new boss Lee Crooks goes into his first game in charge at home to Leigh tomorrow facing something of an injury crisis.

Already without Paul Owen, who underwent knee surgery on Thursday, Crooks will also be without Brock McDonald (hamstring) and the club's senior player Simon Irving, who picked up a knee injury at Dewsbury and has been doubtful all week.

The three quarters have been further weakened by Thursday's decision by the Disciplinary Panel to suspend Karl Smith for three matches after he was cited against Dewsbury for his action in the first half brawl. Rob Roberts, however, who was also sent off is free to play, his dismissal having been deemed sufficient punishment.

Crooks was non too happy with Smith saying: "I think he was lucky to only get three matches. Players have got to learn to have discipline, particularly when we've got a stretched squad. I want them to be aggressive but they have got to be legally aggressive."

The squad was further weakened by the news this week that Aussie back row forward Duncan Smith will be out for the season. He broke down in training on Wednesday night with cruciate ligament damage. He, too, will have to undergo knee surgery.

However Crooks does get a boost to his squad where he has now got too many forwards and not enough backs with Alan Julian and Danny Guest returning.

Crooks is looking forward to his first game in charge and is quite philosophical about the injury situation saying: "It's going to be interesting to see how the players respond to a new man at the helm and how they respond to what we've done in training this week.

"We've worked hard and it would be nice to start with a win but Leigh played really well last week and it's sure to be a really tough game. Even if we do win it doesn't mean everything's hunky dory - there's still a lot of work to be done - and if we do lose it's not the end of the world."

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