Surprising news but it's not much of a blow going of this years performances (although I did expect better next year).
In the short term it may be a loss with Flower and Mossop out but long term he'd have been my 6th/7th choice prop after Flower, Mossop, Crosby, Clubb, Tautai and Patrick. I'd also like to see Sutton given more games and Greenwood given a chance.
One thing I would probably do now is keep Dudson at least until Flower and Mossop are back. No point leaving ourselves short and who knows, maybe the threat of leaving will give him the boot up the backside he needs.