WIDNES Vikings winger Patrick Ah Van is going to miss around 12 weeks of action with a broken arm.

The 29-year-old suffered the injury before scoring his try in Vikings' opening Betfred Super League 2018 game against Catalans Dragons at the Halton Stadium on Sunday.

"He'll have an operation on Friday and that will set us back in a big way because he's such a big part of our back field," said Vikings' head coach Denis Betts.

"He scored his try after breaking his arm, playing for about 15 to 20 minutes with the injury.

"It wasn't Alan Prescott, but it was a big effort."

Betts' Prescott reference concerns the St Helens forward leading Great Britain to victory over Australia in Brisbane in 1958, having broken his arm after just four minutes but continuing to play.

Betts said he has scrutinised Sunday's match video to see how the injury was sustained.

"It's just a collision, there's no swinging arm," he said.

"It's got caught between two people.

"He knew it was sore but didn't think it was anything too harsh.

"It got worse over a period of time. When we had it x-rayed yesterday, it's got a fracture."

With Ryan Ince currently unavailable, Betts is currently weighing up his options to replace Ah Van in Sunday's visit to 2017 League Leaders' Shield winners Castleford Tigers, who are smarting after a heavy opening loss at St Helens.

"Olly Ashall and Ed Chamberlain have been training really well," said Betts.

"Olly's exciting and predominantly a full-back but I think we can do some work with him on the wing.

"We could change the team around a little bit. Charly Runciman could play on that edge and then Chris Dean or Matt Whitley could go into the centres.

"There's a couple of things to jig around and talk to the coaching staff about.

"But we've got cover. Ryan Ince, the obvious choice to fill that hole, is still about two to three weeks away.

"We're still in the marketplace too for somebody to fill that spot."