Workington Town star Ryan Fieldhouse faces up to four months on the sidelines after undergoing an operation last week.

Town coach Leon Pryce confirmed the full-back went under the knife after popping his AC joint in training recently.

Pryce admitted it was disappointing to lose Fieldhouse so early on in the year but said injuries were ‘part and parcel’ of the game.

“Ryan will be out for three to four months as he popped his AC joint and had an operation last week,” explained Pryce.

“But that’s sport and it happened in training. Rugby league is a contact sport and you get these kind of injuries, it’s part and parcel of the game.

“We wish a speedy recovery to Ryan and we have Tyllar Mellor playing there at the moment and he is doing ok, filling his gap.”

Fieldhouse joined Town in the close season from fellow Cumbrians Barrow Raiders, after making 80 appearances over three seasons for the Craven Park side, scoring 41 tries and helping the club to a League One Cup and promotion double in 2017.

Pryce said, after Sunday’s victory over North Wales Crusaders, that he was still happy with the squad he had and said unless they struggled with more injuries, they were not looking any further at the moment.

He did field a couple of dual registration players from Huddersfield Giants in the clash at Derwent Park and said they had bedded in well with the rest of the squad with Innes Senior coming in on the wing and prop Colton Roche featuring off the bench for a second week.

“The dual reg lads are doing ok,” he added. “We try and work it so that we get our contracted players playing but, at the same time, if we’ve got players that we feel can be pushed forward then they have always got to be on their toes and fighting for the positions.

“There is now competition for places which we didn’t have last year.

“But we have a more than good enough squad to compete at this level, if we got injuries then we will look further.”

Town now must knuckle down in training this week before they face a tough test this coming Sunday at Doncaster.

The Dons just lost out 20-18 to Hunslet in a tight encounter in their first home game of the Betfred League One campaign so they will be looking to get some more points on the board against Town, after an opening weekend win at Newcastle.