Leeds Rhinos news: injury could end pivot's season as half-back contingency plan revealed

Teenage stand-off George Brown limped out of the Betfred Challenge Cup defeat at Wakefield Trinity a week ago and is facing a long spell on the casualty list, coach Brad Arthur confirmed at his preview press conference today (Friday) ahead of Sunday’s visit to Hull FC.

Brown is one of only three specialist halves in Leeds’ senior squad and Arthur revealed recent signing Jack Bird is likely to act as back-up if either Brodie Croft or Jake Connor is ruled out. Croft has missed Leeds’ last two games with a hamstring injury, but will return this weekend.

Outlining the highly-rated youngster’s setback, Arthur said: “Poor kid, it’s his meniscus and he has had an operation during the week. It could be quite lengthy; at this stage they are talking four or five months.

“I am not sure if he will play again this year, that will depend on his rehab. There’s every possibility he might be right by the end of the year, but there’s certainly no rush with it.

“He is only young and we want to make sure we rehab him properly and give him every opportunity to strengthen it. He can work on other areas of his game, put a bit of work into his upper body and get a bit thicker and stronger.

“He has certainly shown he is tough enough to handle it physically and now he can put a bit more weight on up top. That will be his mentality at the moment.”

Brown, 19, made his first team debut in the opening game of this season and has featured four times, including as starting stand-off in Leeds’ past two matches. Arthur added: “It’s one of those where you can try and rush them through and push it.

“If he was 30-odd and getting towards the end of his career you might take a few chances with it, but he’s young and has a lot of time in front of him. We are investing in the future and doing the right thing by him.”

Arthur said Rhinos won’t look to bring another half into their squad during Brown’s layoff. “We’re not really interested in that,” he insisted. “We’ve got Jack Bird, we looked at his highlight reel today and he had the number six jersey on in some of his NRL games. He is more than capable and Chank [Chris Hankinson] has done a good job for us there.

“If we get stuck in that position we’ve got guys who have been in our system and know exactly how we want to play. We can simplify their role to be able to fill in.”

Croft has not played since Rhinos’ win over Hull KR in Las Vegas three weeks ago, but will return on Sunday. Arthur confirmed: “He trained really well on Wednesday.

“He was very close last week, but we were just beaten by the circumstances - we only had the opportunity for one training session on a five-day turnaround and it wasn’t much of a session. It wasn’t enough to test him and it wasn’t the right thing to put him out there, not knowing 100 per cent he was good to go.”