Leeds Rhinos news: Ash Handley & James McDonnell injury update ahead of Wakefield Trinity Challenge Cup tie
Leeds Rhinos coach Brad Arthur has provided an update on two new injury concerns.
Captain/centre Ash Handley played only 36 minutes of yesterday’s (Sunday) 22-4 win against Castleford Tigers and second-row James McDonnell was a late withdrawal from the starting lineup. Rhinos are in Betfred Challenge Cup fourth round action at Wakefield Trinity on Friday and Arthur is confident both will be available.
The win against Tigers was Handley’s second game after recovering from a groin injury suffered in pre-season and speaking in his post-match press conference, Arthur said: “He just had a bit of groin tightness. He wanted to stay and he could have stayed, but if we leave him there and something happens in the second half…we’ve just got to trust the other guys.
“We’ve got Chris Hankinson there [on the bench] for a reason and he came on and did good. It ended up being the right decision for Ash and he should be right for this week. He wanted to stay there, but the physios made the right decision to take him off.”
McDonnell was due to start in the pack, but his place was taken by Ethan O’Neill and Jeremiah Mata’utia came into the 17 on the bench, with new signing Jack Bird becoming 18th man. Arthur explained: “He did all the training on Friday, then they were doing their extras and he hit a hit shield and jarred his back a bit.
“He wanted to play and did a bit of a fitness test and declared himself ready, but I made a decision that we’ve got other guys there. We got some game time into Jerry and that’s a positive for us, that we’ve got the strength in the squad and the numbers to do that and not put blokes at risk.
“If it had been a Grand Final, James would have played and Ash would have stayed there. They should be right for Friday. We weren’t disrespecting Castleford and saying we’ll save them for next week, it’s just we’ve got other blokes there, let’s trust them to do their job.
“Hopefully we are building a system where they just come in, like Chris [Hankinson] did and do their job. You are filling a jersey number, not someone else’s role - you are doing the role of the jersey.”
Stand-off Brodie Croft missed Sunday’s game with a hamstring injury so teenager George Brown made his home debut. Prop Mikolaj Oledzki, who has yet to play in Betfred Super League this year because of damaged ribs, wasn’t risked.
Oledzki is expected to be available on Friday, but Croft is unlikely to feature. Arthur said: “It’s a five-day turnaround, we probably just need to trust George. If it was a Grand Final, he’d be playing. He keeps pushing and that’s the thing I am really happy about, all the guys are pushing to get out on the field all the time, that’s really encouraging for me.”
Bird could also be in contention for the Cup tie and if necessary Arthur could call on Ben Littlewood, Presley Cassell and Tom Nicholson who played on loan for Hunslet in their Championship defeat at Widnes Vikings yesterday.