PAUL Crarey is crossing his fingers Lewis Charnock will not be ruled out long-term after suffering a dislocated right shoulder in Barrow Raiders' 56-12 defeat away to London Broncos yesterday.

The goal-kicking scrum half sustained the injury in a tackle during the final 10 minutes of the Betfred Championship season-opener, having already been struggling with his shoulder prior to the match.

Charnock expressed his willingness to play despite the problem, but could now need an operation which would likely sideline him for at least four months.

Head coach Crarey hopes that does not prove to be the case.

"He’s on pain-killers and we knew there was a problem with his shoulder," said Crarey. "We’ve strapped it heavily and he’s in a brace, but it is a major problem and we were told, if it pops out, he might need a major operation which will be 16 weeks.

"That’s entirely up to him, he wanted to play with it, but whether he can carry on playing with it is a major thing for us.

"We’ve got those options, but it will be a big blow to lose our kicker and our pivot if it is for a long period.

"But it’s quick and tough at this level, and those boys were coming hard for 80 minutes and they’re a full-time team, so there’s always a chance of a blow-out against these full-time teams."

Dean Parata or Karl Ashall would be in line to fill in for Charnock during his absence, while Tom Loxam will come into the side if Declan Hulme has not recovered from suffering double-vision in time for Sunday's home game with Toronto Wolfpack.

Crarey felt the amount of defending his side had to do against the full-time Broncos led to fatigue in the lopsided score, although he was pleased with how his side were able to compete in the first half.

"Our season won’t be defined by the result at London Broncos," added Crarey. "What we’ve got to do it learn from it, learn to grind and turn the edges in rather than play on them

"We’ve got to stick to process, learn that you can’t switch off for a minute on short edges and you’ve got to be really disciplined. I said to them we’ve got to stick together and take the positives.

"We’ve got a really tough start and realistically it was always going to be tough at London. We’ve just got to move on and pull ourselves together for Toronto come next week – and they beat Leigh at Leigh, so it’s going to be another challenge for us."