PETER Gentle called his side's opening defeat at Leeds "a reality "check after it was compounded by the loss of marquee signing Gareth Ellis.
The ex-Rhinos player failed to play a minute of what was supposed to be his dream Hull debut, hobbling off in the warm-up with a foot injury.
The injury, feared to be the same one which saw him miss a large chunk of last year's NRL season with Wests Tigers, offered a deflating start to the season for Hull, who were overrun by the reigning champions in a 36-6 loss.
Hull were in the game for large periods, despite being under pressure throughout, but crumbled away thanks to a poor second-half display.
"I'm not even going to guess what Gareth has done. We will wait until we get the scans and x-rays done," said Gentle when asked about his captain's injury.
"Gareth has hurt his foot, but I've no idea what the injury is yet, whether it is ligaments or what. All I know at the moment is it's in a boot and we'll know more after scans. We could have needled it and risked him, but this early in the season there is no point doing that.
"It was tough losing our leader, but that was no excuse for the defeat, it didn't affect our performance.
"In the first half we were able to go with them, but in the second half we fell apart and looked like we'd been thrown together for the first time. We have a lot of work to do."
