Deacon could be out of action for a few weeks

Deacon has had an operation to fix a torn retina after picking up the injury in a friendly against Castleford.

"The reality is that it could have been a lot worse," Bulls coach Brian Noble told BBC Radio Leeds.

"But it's quite a gruesome injury really. I just think about the surgery and it makes me feel queasy".

Deacon, who is likely to be out until March, will miss the challenge game against Australian champions Penrith Panthers on 13 February.

"It's disappointing for Paul because a lot of the things we do revolve around his intelligence and his kicking game and his ability to structure things for us Paul Deacon

And he will have to sit out Bradford's opening Tetley's Super League game against Wigan the following week, as well as the start of their Challenge Cup defence on 27 or 28 February.

"He got a finger in the eye on Sunday and suffered a slight detachment of the retina," said Noble.

"It's disappointing for Paul because a lot of the things we do revolve around his intelligence and his kicking game and his ability to structure things for us.

"But we've plenty of time to put somebody else in. We've just got to get on with it."

Lee Radford is the likely goalkicking replacement for Deacon, who played in all but one of his club's 35 matches last season when he was the game's top scorer with 389 points.

But Bradford have no obvious scrum-half alternative unless skipper Robbie Paul gets the go-ahead to resume playing when he sees a specialist tomorrow morning.