Sheffield Eagles: ‘The problem isn’t going away’ – Aston on Ben Blackmore’s back issue

Blackmore has been playing through a back niggle for the last few games, but after waking up in discomfort on the morning of the match, the ex-Featherstone ace was ruled out of the contest with his former employers.

Aston says there’s options within the club to get to the root of the issue, leaving the door open for Blackmore to explore avenues to eliminate the problem in future.

“Ben woke up with a bad back and couldn’t play,” Aston confirmed to The Star.

“I thought Jason Crookes and Ben Hellewell were great. Did we miss him? Well, he's a good player so we will obviously miss him but the boys who stood up and wanted to play, played.

“Is there a doubt about his back? Well, he has a problem. He has an opportunity through the club to see people about it and try and make it better. Whether he chooses to do that is up to him. We have people here who he has access to, and we need some more commitment to try and get it right. The problem isn't going away.”

Aston also confirmed Joel Farrell and Aaron Brown are both still managing knocks, as the Eagles finally navigated their way through a minefield of fixtures.

Meanwhile, the Eagles have confirmed their league fixture with Leigh will take place on Sunday 30th June (3pm) after it was initially advertised as a Friday night fixture.