Sam Burgess injured in England’s World Cup loss to Australia

AFTER initial fears Sam Burgess may not play again until the Rugby League World Cup final, the England star has offered a brighter outlook on his knee injury.

Sam Burgess leaves the field after injuring his knee.

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ENGLAND forward Sam Burgess hopes to return for the Rugby League World Cup quarter-finals after suffering a knee injury in the Old Dart’s 18-4 loss to Australia on Friday night.

Burgess injured his medial ligament at Melbourne’s AAMI Park and was originally expected to miss a month of football, all-but ruling him out of England’s World Cup campaign.

But the South Sydney star hopes to be back in time for the quarter-finals, if England qualify, to be held across the weekend of November 17-19.

Sam Burgess leaves the field after injuring his knee.

On Friday night, England coach Wayne Bennett had forecast a more pessimistic outlook for his star forward.

“Sam’s done a medial by the look of it so it will be three or four weeks,” said England coach Wayne Bennett.

Bennett said he was confident they had the depth to cover Burgess, with Ben Currie performing well at second row when he came on off the bench.

“We’ve got a quality football team here,” Bennett said.

“Sam’s going to be a loss in any team but we managed for 60 minutes without him tonight and we didn’t seem to lose a lot of momentum.”

- with AAP

Originally published as Sam Burgess injured in England’s World Cup loss to Australia