Bailey Hodgson’s injury may prove a short-term ‘blessing’ - says his uncle Josh

Hull-born full-back Bailey Hodgson, 19, left Castleford Tigers for Newcastle Knights in the autumn but his Australia adventure is on hold following knee surgery.

Still, Josh Hodgson who has starred Down Under since joining Canberra Raiders from Hull KR in 2015, is on hand to help him acclimatise.

Huddersfield Giants winger Dom Young, 19, also moved to Newcastle in the off-season and Hodgson said: “Bailey’s going well. He’s getting pretty settled now in Newcastle.

“His family are still in England but he’s settled in down there and has a little mate in big Dom.

“He had a patella tendon operation a few weeks ago but he’s out of his brace and should be back playing at the back end of April/May time. Now that’s fixed he’ll be even more excited.”

Hodgson, 31, added: “The injury’s been hanging around for a while. I think he did it just before his Cas debut last year.

“So they made the decision in January, once it got annoyed again, just to get it operated on and get it sorted.

“He’s a young lad, and has a big career ahead of him hopefully and a long time to get it right.

“I said to him it might be a bit of a blessing in disguise as well as you have got to be pretty big in terms of the wingers and full-backs over here to carry it out the back field.

“He’s still pretty sleight so this will give him chance to put some size on and then come back real big and strong and ready to go.”

Meanwhile, Hodgson has helped Canberra get off to a 100 per cent start with two wins.

He is looking for another big season before the World Cup starts here in October and said: “It will be a massive competition.

“It’s looking like it (Covid) is getting better at home so hopefully it keeps going that way and we can get the rugby league word out there in England to try get the sport bigger and bigger.

“Winning a World Cup would be a massive achievement not just for the team but for how much it would spread the word and get kids loving rugby league.”

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