BRENDAN SANTI is set to be sidelined for a ‘number of weeks’ and will miss York Knights’ opening day of the Betfred Championship season.

The Knights' league campaign gets underway on Sunday, March 17 (3pm) with a trip to Doncaster RLFC, with Andrew Henderson’s side looking to build on last season’s seventh-placed play-off finish.

However, York Head Coach Henderson will be without the injured Santi as well as Will Dagger, Jordan Thompson and Jesse Dee through suspension, whilst the Knights did receive positive news on the progress of Liam Harris and Ronan Michael after stints out.

“Brendan Santi won’t be (available), he will be out for a number of weeks, we got his scan results back and he’s got a calf issue there,” Henderson told the Press.

“He will be out for a number of weeks.

“Liam Harris, we will know more at the back end of the week but at the moment he’s looking out for himself, he picked up a knock at Oldham and we’ve been managing that. We’re hopeful he will play on Sunday.

“He’s (Michael) good, he’s available this week.

“We’re obviously missing Will Dagger, Jordan Thompson and Jesse Dee.

“We’ve got three of our established players missing this week, so it does disrupt you slightly but as I said at the start of the conversation, this year we have got a decent squad and a very talented squad to have at our disposal.

“I’m confident that whoever fills that role will do it to a good standard, and if they do then it will make it difficult for those guys within a week or two weeks to force their way back into the team, that’s what we want.

“We want to be delivering performances to the right levels and challenging one another, it’s disappointing that we don’t have those three guys available this week, but it presents a great opportunity for someone else to stake their claim and force their way into this team.”

Henderson also provided an update on youngster Charlie Severs, whose season-long loan from Hull FC was cut short due to suspensions and injuries hampering his parent club.

The Knights Head Coach confirmed that he is hopeful that Severs will be re-joining the club within the next two weeks, despite Wednesday’s additions of Tom Lineham and Tom Nicholson-Watton, with York continuing to build their squad ahead of Sunday’s Championship season-opener in South Yorkshire.

Henderson told the Press: “I’ve been in regular contact with Charlie every week, obviously he joined us on that season-long loan but was very quickly recalled because Hull had a high number of suspensions and injuries.

“He’s been featuring for Hull, he was part of the 18-men that went away to Catalan and he played a game against London and Warrington in their previous games.

“He’s still with Hull at the moment, but I will be able to update as soon as we know.

“Hopefully we will have him back available within the next couple of weeks.”