Woe is England. Much woe, with captain Adrian Morley ruled out of the Four Nations with a torn bicep suffered in the sixth minute of Saturday night's tour opener.
Morley's unkind fate mirrors that of the man he replaced as captain, Jamie Peacock, who missed the tour with a serious
knee injury.
With the main creative talent, Wigan playmaker Sam Tomkins also in doubt for Wellington with a groin injury, England are in disarray. Without their best two props and up to three top halves (Danny McGuire and Kyle Eastmond are also absent) they will struggle to piece together a competitive line-up.
Morley will fly home this week. The list of contenders to take the poisoned chalice of the England captaincy (Peacock's predecessor Paul Sculthorpe was named captain in 2005, but never even got on the park due to injury) from Morley is short, with Gareth Ellis perhaps at the front of it.
"I'm absolutely gutted and am still coming to terms with it," Morley said. "I've been around long enough to accept that injuries are a part of every sportsman's life but this one has left me devastated. I knew as soon as it happened that it was serious. It was just an accidental bang to my arm, but the pain was excruciating."
Veterans James Graham and Stuart Fielden are able replacements for Morley, but neither carries his mana or boasts his NRL experience.
"It's really tough on Moz [Morley] and on England," coach Steve McNamara said. "Adrian is a fiercely proud Englishman and I know how much captaining his country in the Four Nations meant to him."
McNamara is yet to decide whether to call for a replacement player to join the squad.
