Stuart Howarth intends to play on for Whitehaven despite suffering a hairline fracture of his arm during Saturday’s 46-0 defeat at Bradford Bulls.

Howarth was hurt late in the first half but did reappear for the second half before being taken off.

Whitehaven player-coach Carl Forster said: “He has a hairline fracture and a chipped bone but is determined to play on, which is typical of the spirit we have in this group of players.

“But we will be assessing him during the week and it might be that he is advised not to play. You have to listen to good advice.

“He went into a big tackle and came-off second best but he played on for five minutes and did another five minutes at the start of the second half.

“We will be meeting on Wednesday as usual and will see how he’s been faring with the arm.”

Haven have another big, crunch game on Sunday when they travel to top-five rivals Oldham.

Howarth was the one real injury concern from the Braford game although Haven were unable to use Dion Aiye, Dan Abram or Lewis Brown at Odsal because of injuries.

Two amateurs Jordan Thompson and Jordan Herve played at Bradford and earned high parise from Forster, especially Hensingham forward Thompson.

“He saw more minutes and played really well. That was the bonus for us, how well he did on debut. As far as I’m concerned, he did enough on Saturday to earn his place in the squad for the Oldham game on merit,” said the coach.

Whitehaven are now out of the play-off places, but only on points differential as four teams are level on 26 pints – Oldham, Doncaster, Hunslet and Whitehaven.

Haven have all three of those rivals to play in their last six matches with two of them – Doncaster (August 19) and Hunslet (September 9) at home.

Strugglers Hemel Stags (away, Sept 2) and Coventry (home, Sept 16) also have to be fitted in while the last game is at joint leaders York City Knights (Sept 23).