Long has scored five tries in 12 Super League appearances for Hull in 2010

Hull FC may have to face being without skipper Sean Long for the rest of the season after he was ruled out for eight weeks with his dislocated elbow.

The former St Helens and Great Britain scrum-half was led off in pain late on in the 10-8 win over Catalans Dragons at the KC Stadium last Friday night.

And scans have now revealed the full extent of the injury, meaning that he is sidelined for at least two months.

The earliest possible date of a return is the clash with Leeds on 3 September.

But that is Hull's final game of the league campaign - and if they fail to make the last eight (they currently have an eight-point cushion on ninth-placed Wakefield), then their season would be over.

The Black and Whites' recent upturn in form, which has seen them win four of their last five games to go fourth in Super League XV, has coincided with 33-year-old Long's return after a lengthy spell out with an ankle problem.

Long, Hull's close season signing from St Helens, has endured a rough time with injuries in his brief career at the KC Stadium, missing seven of the club's 20 games already.

He suffered his latest injury attempting to tackle Catalans back Carlaw during last Friday's 10-8 win for the Black and Whites.

"He's going to be off for an extended period," Hull coach Richard Agar told BBC Radio Humberside. "He was on oxygen and in a fair bit of pain.

"The scans are pretty positive because the standard for a dislocated elbow is eight weeks and there's nothing to suggest it's going to be any longer than that.

James Webster has big ideas about it but, at this stage, I don't have any thoughts of playing him Richard Agar on Hull scrum-half James Webster

"We're confident it's going to be an eight-week injury and if all goes well with his rehab - we'll give him the utmost care and attention - we'll have him back for the last week or two of the season.

"He's taken it hard because he loves playing. It gets him down, he was really down earlier in the week.

"Speaking to him yesterday he's a bit more chirpier and we've still got something to aim for with him which has been positive news. He's down and it's up to everybody else to keep working hard."

Agar has already insisted that he will resist the temptation to summon James Webster from his backroom coaching team as a replacement for the injured Long.

With Richard Horne also sidelined and Agar short of options at half-back, there had been talk that 30-year-old Webster, now on Hull FC's coaching staff after a career with Parramatta, Hull KR and Widnes, might step back into the breach.

But Agar said: "At this stage I don't have any thoughts of playing him.

"I think James has big ideas about it, but that's just an indication of how keen James is and his enthusiasm for the club.

"We're probably not far off, but there's lots of things like salary cap, the fact he's not played for a long time and we've got some other fit and well players, so at the moment it's not something we're considering."

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