RECORD try scorer Stewart Brewer has suffered an injury setback and will miss the kick off to Ilkley's new rugby season.

The powerful No8 was a key figure in last season's Yorkshire One and Yorkshire Shield double but an old knee injury has flared up and will keep him on the sidelines.

He has been ruled out of Saturday's Yorkshire Cup first round tie at Wheatley Hills and head coach Rhys Morgan fears he will miss a number of North East One games too.

Morgan will also be without forceful second row Steve Burns who has a similar injury, while Ryan Cooper, Charlie Davy, JH Johnson and Ed Brown are still on cricketing duties.

On the plus side new second row James Spencer from Harrogate will make his debut after featuring in the28-21 friendly defeat at Kendal last Friday, while front row Josh Cockerham and centre Craig Barker have recovered from the knocks which kept them out at the end of last season.

Morgan always knew that his squad would be stretched in the early weeks of the season. He said: "The issue of availability has always been an issue for us at this time of year.

"It is a good test of the depth of our squad and the Yorkshire Cup tie will be good preparation for the start of our league programme next week."