WATCH: Hull fear injured Griffin is ruled out for season

The 28-year-old has been in career best form and, though selected for England Knights’ elite performance squad this term, had been talked about as a potential full international against New Zealand later this year.

However, he left Newcastle United’s St James’ Park in a leg brace last night after suffering a knee injury in their 34-22 win over Hull KR.

Radford, already forced into bringing Kirk Yeaman out of retirement yesterday given the level of their backline injuries, said: “He’ll be done I reckon for the year the way our luck is going at the moment.

“I honestly don’t know but I’m not holding my breath anymore.It’s another big blow and it’s got to stop soon. We have to finish a game without someone going for a scan on a Monday again.”

Radford was pleased with the overall performance, though, as FC earned a seventh straight victory over their derby rivals.

He hailed Joe Westerman’s contribution as the ex-England loose forward produced his best performance yet since returning to the club from Toronto.

“I thought Joe Westerman was the best player on the pitch,” said Radford, who also gave a debut to 18-year-old centre Cameron Scott.

“I know he didn’t get man-of-the-match but I thought he was the stand-out.

“We looked really strong in the forwards. We marched them up the field and our metres after contact were just fantastic. They did a sterling job.

“Scott Taylor and Mickey Paea carried the ball really strong, and Chris Green really impressed me too. I’d like to praise Cameron Scott. It was maybe too early for him but we needed him there and he didn’t look out of place on that edge.

“He did some brilliant work. On debut against some strong players he looked really promising.”

Hull KR – who were missing 10 players themselves to injury – also saw on-loan hooker Aaron Smith go off concussed in the early exchanges as well as centre Junior Vaivai (knee) late on.

“Everyone’s trying real hard but in real terms Hull were just too big and too strong for us,” said Sheens.

“Everybody is hurting at the moment, myself included, but the situation is what it is.

“We’re sitting bottom at the moment but we won’t give up.

“The time will come when we need to look at the Middle Eights but I’m not prepared to just accept that just yet.”