PAUL Crarey is sympathetic to the plight of Whitehaven after injuries and illness saw them pull out of this Sunday’s scheduled friendly against Barrow Raiders.

Haven announced earlier in the week they were considering withdrawing from the match after suffering more injuries in last Sunday’s 18-10 defeat at home to Swinton Lions, having gone into that encounter with just a 15-man squad available.

That was subsequently confirmed on Wednesday evening after player-coach Carl Forster had assessed his squad at training, leaving the Raiders with a blank weekend ahead of their 2018 Betfred Championship opener at London Broncos on Sunday, February 4.

A semi-contact session with the Furness Raiders under-19s has been arranged tomorrow morning in lieu of the clash with Whitehaven being cancelled and while Crarey is disappointed, he understands the predicament their Cumbrian rivals are in.

“They’ve got to do what’s best for them as a club, and I’d do the same if I wasn’t ready, my team weren’t reading, and we’d had injuries and a flu bug,” said Crarey.

“We were looking forward to this game, I thought we’d have had a big crowd, both clubs would have benefited financially and the players would have because it would have been full-on.

“We had a good contest with them last year; we were going to put out the side which would go to London in the first half and then put the rest on in the second half to give them some minutes.

“We’re working hard to get a semi-contact session to give us some game-shape and that’s the only thing we can do.”