LEIGH Centurions have been struck by a triple injury blow just a week into the new season.

Newcomers Gareth Price, Rob Ball and Chris Irwin were all casualties from Leigh's opening day victory over Barrow and have been KO'd for Sunday's testing trip to Batley.

Welsh international forward Price is head coach Paul Terzis' biggest worry. Price left Hilton Park on crutches after badly twisting his ankle in a tackle after an impressive debut as a substitute last Sunday.

Hospital checks

Hospital checks have cleared the 21-year-old of serious damage but he's likely to be missing for at least the next two weeks.

Winger Irwin also has an ankle problem that rules him out of the trip to Mount Pleasant while Ball has a groin strain.

But on the plus side Terzis has hooker John Hamilton available again and is confident that Chris Morley will also play.

Hamilton sat out Sunday's win over Barrow because of a rib cartilage problem while Morley was a late withdrawal after a shin injury became infected. Hamilton is likely to take one of the bench places while Terzis hopes that a course of antibiotics will solve the problem for Morley.

Stand-off Simon Svabic is also close to a return after knee surgery but Leigh are likely to opt for a cautious approach and give him another week off.

"I won't be risking anyone who isn't 100 per cent," states Terzis. "The season is a long and arduous one, so it would be silly to do anything risky at this stage."

Terzis is unworried by the prospect of a tough test at Mount Pleasant - the graveyard of many teams in the past, Leigh included.

"I've never been there but I've ben told that the slope can influence a game. But we take things like that in our stride and just see it as another challenge.

"Batley gave Rochdale a run for their money last weekend and on their own patch I expect them to come out strongly. I've looked at a video of that game and identified one or two areas we can exploit."