Bulldogs Hobbled By Deep-vein Thrombosis

A deep-vein thrombosis scare may force Canterbury to call their football manager Bradley Clyde out of retirement for the World Club Challenge against his old club Leeds on Friday night.

Trent Cutler, a young wing who was due to make his debut for the Bulldogs at Elland Road, was unable to train yesterday amid fears that he had suffered a blood clot during the Australian champions' flight to Heathrow last weekend.

"Trent is to undergo an ultrasound because what he's got is a very serious thing and we won't be taking any risks," said Canterbury's coach Steve Folkes.

If Cutler and Trevor Thurling, a prop who strained his hamstring in the Bulldogs' first training session after arriving last Saturday, are both ruled out, Folkes confirmed that he would turn to Clyde, who played a full part in practice yesterday. The 35-year-old former Test loose-forward has not played since an unhappy six-month stint with Leeds, in which he suffered persistent hamstring problems, ended with a defeat by Bradford at Odsal in July 2001.

But Folkes said: "Clydey has trained well and is probably one of the fittest blokes here. Hopefully we won't need him but it's going to be an interesting decision. It's too late to bring someone else over now."

Wigan have failed in a bid to sign South Sydney's former Kangaroo forward Bryan Fletcher as a replacement for Luke Davico, another Australian who suffered a serious pectoral injury in his first and last appearance for the club in a pre-season friendly last week.

The Warriors' chairman Maurice Lindsay confirmed yesterday that Souths had refused to release Fletcher from the remaining year of his contract, but was noncommittal on Australian reports claiming that he has made an approach to the Parramatta prop Michael Vella.