Bradford Bulls scrum-half Paul Deacon withdraws from Great Britain squad due to hamstring injury.
Bulls scrum-half to miss Great Britain games
Bradford Bulls scrum-half Paul Deacon has been forced to withdraw from Great Britain's train-on squad due to his ongoing injury problems.
The Bulls captain, who trained with his international team-mates this week, has still not fully recovered from the hamstring injury that caused him to miss Bradford's last three matches of the season.
Deacon, will not be considered for the forthcoming New Zealand series in order to begin further rehabilitation work with the club's medical team.
The 28-year-old, who last played for the Lions in the 2005 Tri-Nations series, is confident of being fit to start his testimonial year for the Bulls next month.
Deacon told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus: "The hamstring went again about 15 minutes into our Monday session.
Frustrated
"I was gutted, frustrated to death once more and didn't sleep that night thinking about the circumstances I was in.
"I wasn't going to be able to train for at least another week and then it might go again when I came back. I'd have only played once in eight weeks so wasn't going to be physically fit either.
"I rang Steve (McNamara) and talked it through with him and the physios. The decision was I needed a rest.
"I didn't take the decision lightly. I was looking forward to hopefully playing again for Great Britain but it's the right thing to do. I will be fully fit when we come back training in November."
Leeds scrum-half Rob Burrow is likely to start in the number seven role against New Zealand on October 27 in place of Deacon, who is the second player to withdraw from the squad after Huddersfield's Kevin Brown pulled out to have groin surgery.
