Leeds Rhinos news: Alfie Edgell injury update as extent of layoff revealed

The 21-year-old damaged a foot in Rhinos’ one-point loss at Wakefield Trinity two weeks ago. It was initially thought he had suffered a break, which would have ended his season, but sporting director Ian Blease revealed his layoff won’t be as long as first feared.

After a fractured jaw in pre-season and shoulder injury midway through the campaign, Edgell was called up in June to replace Riley Lumb and played in five successive games, scoring a hat-trick in last month’s win against Salford Red Devils. He hobbled off in the second half at Belle Vue and Blease confirmed: “He’s going to be out for a few weeks.

“The good news is he hasn’t fractured anything. At first we were worried there was a fracture; [the layoff] is not as long as we thought, but it’s still going to be a few weeks - maybe three or four. We’ll have to manage it on a weekly basis, but it’s not season-ending.”

Star wing signing Maika Sivo was ruled out for the whole year after rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament in pre-season. Australian outside-back Ethan Clark-Wood, who replaced him on this year’s overseas quota, is expected to miss the rest of the campaign because of a damaged shoulder and youngsters Ned McCormack (hamstring) and Max Simpson (knee) are not yet back in action after injury. Those setbacks led to Rhinos signing the experienced Chris Hankinson from Salford Red Devils this week and he is vying with Lumb to replace Edgell against Leigh.

Scrum-half Jake Connor was another casualty in the game at Wakefield. He failed a head injury assessment in the second half, but the split round means he won’t miss a game. Connor is in Rhinos’ squad for to face Leigh and Blease said: “He is fine, he got a poke in the eye, a bit of friendly fire. He couldn’t see out of it and he had a black eye when he came in the following day, but he will be okay.”