BARROW Raiders have been dealt a massive blow with the news that Charlie Emslie has been ruled out for three months ahead of tomorrow’s trip to face Sheffield Eagles.

The former Millom forward has been on top of his form in recent weeks, but suffered a bicep tear in last week's defeat at the hands of Doncaster.

Emslie will undergo surgery, and will be a big miss in the forwards for Barrow, who are already without Jarrad Stack.

The skipper is back home down under due to family reasons.

Raiders have brought in Finley Beardsworth on a short-term loan from Wigan Warriors.

In other injury news, Aaron Smith is also on the treatment table, while Matty Costello, who received a head injury last week, is out for 11 days.

Shane Toal (calf) and Adam Jackson (leg) are also receiving treatment, and Leigh loan forward Kavan Rothwell also has a slight injury and sits this one out on the advice of his parent club.

The opportunity could arise for Army recruit Mike Ogunwole and Delaine Gittens-Bedward to step into the breach.

The clash with the Eagles is head coach Paul Crarey’s 300th game in charge of Raiders.

Speaking ahead of the long trip to Yorkshire, Carery said: “We are hit once more with injuries and losing Charlie (Emslie) is another big blow.

“He's been in good form and has worked hard over the years to establish a position in the pack.

“We are up against it, and going to Sheffield who are bang in form will be a tough ask. They must be hot favourites.

“They are a good all-round team so it is up to us to compete. Last week against Doncaster we again came up with too many errors, we had a good video review of the game, and the lads know what went wrong.

“Attitude and effort is important and we lacked that, but Doncaster had loads of the ball in hand, and were a very big side.

“Injuries are crippling us at the moment.”

Sheffield are the Championship's form team and last week crushed Halifax at the Shay 46-0, not many teams go to the Shay and Nil Halifax, and that scoreline was a massive one.

Half-back is the key position, and the Eagles have a dominating duo in Coach Mark Aston’s son Cory and the evergreen Anthony Thackeray.

Crarey has named a 21-man squad for the clash: Max Anderson-Moore, Finley Beardsworth, Luke Broadbent, Andrew Bulman, Greg Burke, Brett Carter, Max Clarke, Luke Cresswell, Tom Forber, Ellis Gillam, Delaine Gittens-Bedward, James Greenwood, Ryan Johnston, Finn McMillan, Mike Ogunwole, Ryan Shaw, Razor Silva, Tom Walker, Brad Walker, Tom Wilkinson, Josh Wood.