Leeds Rhinos news: key player set to return but injury worries mount ahead of Bradford Bulls derby

The Betfred Super League leaders were without four players for yesterday’s 36-34 defeat at Castleford Tigers. Winger Ryan Hall and prop Keenan Palasia both have a foot injury, centre/captain Ash Handley is recovering from appendicitis and number nine Jarrod O’Connor missed out because of concussion.

Hooker Danny Levi was taken to hospital during the game for checks on a neck injury, though he is now recuperating at home and second-row Chris Hankinson failed a head injury assessment, ruling him out of this weekend’s derby.

Of the players who didn’t play against Castleford, O’Connor is most likely to return for the meeting with Bradford. Arthur said: “Jarrod got a delayed concussion after the game last week, but everything’s fine. He is 100 per cent at the moment, so he should be all right. He has just got to follow the protocol.”

Hankinson is now going through a similar process. Arthur confirmed: “Because he stumbled as he came out of the tackle, I think that’s an automatic [stand-down].”

Palasia remains in a protective boot and is expected to be sidelined for another five weeks, but no exact time scale has been given for Hall or Handley. All three were at Sunday’s game and Arthur noted: “Ash is getting around okay.

“It’s two, three, four weeks, something in that range, but he is fine. He was getting some stomach pain so we had to get him to hospital to have a look at it.

“There was nothing straight after the [Catalans] game - it wasn’t until we got back from France. At the start of the year he had an infection in his stomach and missed a couple of weeks, which was tied in a bit to his groin operation. I’m not a doctor, but they [appendicitis] come and go, I am told, so it might have been an issue then and it has resurfaced now.”

For the first time this season, Rhinos did not have a hooker on the bench for the game at Tigers. Prop Tom Nicholson-Watton, who hadn’t played for the first team since Super League round one six months ago, took over as stand-in acting-half after Levi was hurt.

“He did a good job,” Arthur stated. “He didn’t really get a lot of training there. Danny can easily do 80 minutes, but I thought Tom did his job; he passed off the ground, his service was good, he was error-free and he defended and worked hard.”

Winger Alfie Edgell was among Rhinos’ try scorers in his return from a thigh muscle problem suffered last Boxing Day and centre Jack Bird had a recall after two months on the sidelines. Arthur added: “It would have been nice if we’d been able to give Alfie some opportunities in reserve grade, but we didn’t have a game last week so we weren’t able to put him out there.

“I thought he did a good job. There’s a couple of things we need to tidy up on the edge there, but I think that was more a reflection of us being short of numbers because we didn’t get our tackle right.

“There’s lots of things that contribute to the couple of things we got wrong on the end of it. Birdy did a good job, he was good in some patches, but at times he looked like he was short of a run.”