His first injury (pictured) came in the game at Northern inflicted our biggest defeat of the season  - 43-13. It was also a game which saw skipper Danny Boatman given two yellow cards.

Eleven games later both sides are in mid-table on 38 points, but both will be looking over their shoulders as Driffield, the occupiers of the third relegation place at the moment, who are just four points behind.

Top try scorer Sam Miller is also fit again after his own shoulder problems. Otherwise it's the same team which put up a very galant fight at Ilkley last time out. Leading 6-0 at half time we once again struggled to score tries when we had the chance and the second placed team eventually came out on top.

This week's game looks like being another had fought encounter. West and Northern have both struggled for bonus points and in remarkably similar records have only four each. We are one place higher in the league thanks to our points difference of -64 compared with Northern's -123.

The pitch and biting northerly wind won'tt help make it a spectacle. The chances of the game being on seem reasonable given that, ironically, we couldn't train on the "all-weather" 3G pitch at Dyke House last night, however we did manage a good session on the grass training pitch at Brinkburn.

A lot depends on tonights overnight temperatures so watch this space. (If the game is off the next date is February 14th.)

West: Stu Waites, Luke Mallinson,  Scott Butcher, Peter Youll, Kyle Jamieson, Zac Southern, Ryan Painter, Ross Wood, Adam Rollins, Adam Coates, Joe Rafferty, Owen Bennett, Chris Atkins, Dan Boatman (c), Sam Miller. Reps :Michael Hogan, Callum Johnston, Liam Bailey.

Northern: Doug Patterson, Dom Fawcett, Jamie Crowther, Paddy Harper, David Reah, Donal Collins, Owen Clemmet, Larne Jones-Whiting,  Sam Wilson, Damien Martinez, Alan Douglas,  Phil Ludford (c), Joe Robertson-Maher, Ed Cawthorne , Tom McCullough. Reps: Ryan Moore, Paddy Fisher, Tom Smallwood.