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Sam Burgess had made more metres than any other player in Super League after round 16

Steve McNamara admits he's been "cruel" on rising star Sam Burgess this season.

Super League's Young Player of the Year missed his first match of the campaign at St Helens after finally succumbing to a long-standing shoulder injury.

McNamara concedes the inspirational teenager has been defying the pain barrier to help the Bulls through their sticky spell but enough was enough on Friday night.

"If Sam was a dog I'd have been done for animal cruelty the stuff we've been making him do," he said.

"He has been an absolute tower of strength for us all season and everyone recognises that.

"The lad carries the ball 20 times and makes a million tackles every game, running himself to a standstill.

"He's been playing with a shoulder injury for the last four or five weeks though and that's just developed too much for him.

"He needed to stay off the park this week and there was no way I was going to put him out there again."

However, McNamara has put fans' fears at ease by insisting the formidable Great Britain prop, who dropped out late on after initially being included in the 19-man squad, isn't going to be added to the long-term casualty list at Odsal.

A total of eight players were absent for the 58-20 defeat, including vice-captain Glenn Morrison, who is crocked for the season.

But McNamara said: "Sam missed Saints because of the injury but hopefully that has given him the rest he needed as well and he should be right for Hull this weekend."

The Bulls boss believes Burgess - still only 19 - has taken his game to new levels this year, having already enjoyed so much success when he roared onto the international scene and was voted the world's top teenager last season.

"He had a super start when he played the back end of 2006 and put his name up in lights," said McNamara.

"Last year he improved on that but this time he's got even better in his all-round game.

"We all see the big hits and eye-catching stuff but technically the small parts are really, really improving too.

"Sam's started to fulfil all his potential and he's developing into a real leader too.

"With some of the personnel we've been missing, we've asked for everyone to take a lead.

"Sam in particular has done that with his actions and for such a young bloke he is really making his mark."

Despite being patched up, no one made more metres than Burgess after the opening 16 rounds of Super League XIII.

The punishing forward - who has eight tries to his name - charged 2,331 metres, while only James Roby and Clint Greenshields took more than his remarkable 313 carries.

Meanwhile, Bradford hope to have Andy Lynch (neck) returning for the home game with Hull while Chris Nero has an X-ray on his broken collarbone tomorrow.

If that is clear he is still up to a fortnight away from playing so could be back for Hull KR when Wayne Godwin (hernia) and Terry Newton (shoulder) are also likely to reappear.

Tame Tupou sees a knee specialist tomorrow to discover whether he can postpone surgery until the end of the season and skipper Paul Deacon has a chance of being fit this weekend.

7:27am Monday 16th June 2008

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