YORK City Knights winger Matt Chilton will not return to action before May - handing boss James Ford another sizeable headache in the outside backs.

Ford lost fan favourite Ash Robson to a knee injury - the extent of which has not yet been confirmed - during the win at Bradford Bulls at the end of February.

Fellow winger Perry Whiteley was then a last-minute withdrawal from Sunday's victory over Halifax, the 26-year-old pulling out after the warm-up due to a migraine and blurred vision, with Ford having to ask second-row Josh Jordan-Roberts to play out of position in the back line.

The extent of Chilton's injury has also now been confirmed, with the latest scans having shown he has damaged a posterior cruciate ligament, meaning Ford will be without the former York Acorn young gun for much longer than previously expected.

With Robson also looking unlikely to return any time soon, Ford could be left with Judah Mazive and the untested teenager Kevin Brown as his only remaining recognised wingers for Sunday's visit of fellow high-fliers Sheffield Eagles, although centre Jason Bass did well out wide against Halifax and Whiteley could yet make a recovery in time.

Chilton's last competitive outing was his two-try show in the memorable win over Whitehaven on the last day of last season - the victory that sealed the Knights' League One crown. He picked up his injury in pre-season.

Said Ford: "The scan has shown it's healing but we think he will be out for six to eight weeks.

"That is longer than we had hoped but at least we know what it is and what we need to do to get him back onto the field as soon as possible.

"Obviously when you have a knee injury there are certain things you can't do but you can still train in some ways and he's still been doing plenty of work so that when he does come back it won't take too long to get him up to the necessary levels."

The Knights suffered another big injury blow on Sunday when hooker Harry Carter limped out of the win over Fax in the first half after pulling a hamstring.

Ford has a ready-made replacement waiting in the wings in Will Jubb, but Carter's absence puts extra onus on the 22-year-old and fellow hooker Kriss Brining, who is still feeling his way back in after a year out with injury.

Ford, who suffered a fair amount of hamstring trouble in his playing days, initially feared Carter could be sidelined for six weeks.

He explained: "Harry has said it's settled down but that it's still quite painful. We will see how it looks to the medical team.

"I maybe shouldn't have said six weeks (on Sunday) as that's not been confirmed but with the way he was walking it looked like he had pulled his hamstring significantly. I certainly don't expect him to be available this weekend.

"That (six weeks) was my layman's guess just from being in that situation myself on a number of occasions. But he's a tough little kid and we will see how he recovers and reacts to treatment."

In better news, the Knights are relatively healthy in the forward pack, with skipper Tim Spears and Sam Scott making their first appearances of the season on Sunday and second-row Mike Kelly also fit again and pushing for a place alongside loose-forwards Dave Petersen and Marcus Stock.

That means Ford might contemplate allowing a couple of players to get some game-time at new partner club Coventry Bears.

The Knights agreed a dual-registration agreement with the League One expansion outfit last month but no players have as yet turned out for the East Midlanders.

That said, Ford was of the opinion immediately after Sunday's game that some players' "readiness scores" - which identify possible fatigue - might be down this week after another bruising encounter, and he said then that he was already contemplating a couple more changes to his line-up for the visit of Sheffield.