Leeds Rhinos news: injury worries over star duo for St Helens but trio could return v Wigan Warriors

Connor was involved in six of Leeds’ tries in today’s (Sunday) 66-16 win away to York Knights, but hobbled off 14 minutes from time. He also converted the first four touchdowns before handing kicking duty to Chris Hankinson.

“I’m not a doctor, but we’re hoping it’s just tightness,” coach Brad Arthur said in his post-match press conference. “He was tightening in his calf and glute early so we just took the precaution of taking him off.

“He’s not sure so we’ll just have to just wait and see. Hopefully, we think he’s okay. You could see early in the game he was grabbing at his glute, he was just tightening up so that’s why he stopped the kicking. The calf was separate.”

Cameron Smith, who came on as a 23rd minute substitute, didn’t feature in the second half and Arthur revealed that was also a precaution. Leeds were 36-0 ahead at half-time and Arthur explained: “He had a tight quad so there was no need to risk him.

“It allowed us to get extra minutes into other guys, in particular Zak Lloyd. I was able to start him in the second half and move Kallum Watkins into the middle. I am so lucky as a coach we have got that flexibility and a lot of our forwards can play different roles. Chank [Hankinson] went and played at six for a while and that’s a pretty good luxury to have.”

Hankinson scored a brace of tries, but missed with three of his seven shots at goal, all from the left side of the field. “He is a pretty accomplished kicker,” Arthur added. “It was probably a wake up call for us that we haven’t pushed him around practicing enough at the moment, because he is usually a touch better than he was today. But he is still a very good goal kicker.”

Rhinos could have two casualties back for Friday’s huge fixture at St Helens. Arthur said centre Jack Bird will be available following a one-match concussion lay-off and hooker Danny Levi, who has missed five games because of a neck injury, is “very close”.

Three more are aiming to return for the home clash with Wigan Warriors, which could be a league leaders’ shield decider, a week on Saturday. Arthur said: “Keenan [Palasia], Macca [James McDonnell] and Maika [Sivo] are pretty keen to get themselves ready for Wigan, so we’ll just have to see where we’re at.”

Sunday’s win moved Rhinos back into top spot in the Betfred Super League table, above Wigan on points difference. “I didn't come here expecting us to score 66 points so I'm pretty happy with that,” Arthur said of Rhinos’ highest score of the campaign.

“We started with a really good intensity level and our mentality was really, really good. Maybe that mentality drifted at times in the second half, but it becomes hard when you’re up by about 40 points.”