Barrow Raiders are waiting to find out the extent of the knee injury suffered by Jake Carter in last Sunday's 50-6 thrashing of Coventry Bears, amid fears he may have damaged his medial ligament.

The young half-back had to be helped from the pitch in the second half at Craven Park, sustaining the injury whilst the Raiders were defending close to their try line.

It is a fresh blow for Carter, who was making his return to action from a shoulder problem that had kept him out for six weeks, since Barrow's final pre-season friendly against Workington Town.

Play went on while Carter was prone, which head coach Paul Crarey felt presented an unnecessary risk.

Crarey said: "He was laid on the floor and was in pain and I thought the game might have been stopped because he was writhing around the floor in agony and the play the ball was right next to him.

"We knew there was something wrong with Jake and we were just wanting the referee to stop the game because if anybody would have fallen on him at that point then it could have been career-ending.

"But the game was allowed to go on and they scored where Jake would have been stood, so I was a bit disappointed in that, really."

Jordan Walne and Tom Hopkins also had to go off injured against the Bears after blows to the head, but they at least have the whole week to recover, with the Raiders not in action this weekend due to them being out of the Coral Challenge Cup.

By the time they return to action against North Wales Crusaders on March 22, Barrow should have a couple of experienced forwards back anyway.

Crarey said: "We've got a few coming back - Jarrad [Stack], Mossy [Nathan Mossop], people like that and there's two tough games coming up for us now in North Wales and Keighley.

"We want to get through them games clean and come away with two more wins."