Leeds Rhinos news: pivot suffers injury scare in Festive Challenge win v Wakefield Trinity

Rhinos scored three tries to two in the Wetherby Whaler Festive Challenge and were on the front foot for most of a competitive encounter watched by a Boxing Day crowd of more than 11,000. But the negative for the hosts was an injury to full-back Alfie Edgell, who scored their opening touchdown.

It was the 21-year-old's comeback from a stress fracture of a foot suffered against Wakefield last July, after he missed the 2024 Boxing Day game with a broken jaw. Speaking in Rhinos' post-match press conference, assistant-coach Jamie Langley said: "We are going to have to wait and see what the scan results produce.

“He felt something in his quad when he was kicking the ball off. He is a little bit down at the minute. You never know until you see the scans, we will keep our fingers crossed, but he definitely felt something on the kick off of the second half. We'll assess it over the next week or so and see where he's at."

Acting-captain Chris Hankinson went off after suffering a hand injury in the second half, but Rhinos otherwise got through unscathed. Of Hankinson, Langley said: "He dislocated a finger and they couldn't quite get it back in; they are a bit tricky, it's not the pain, just the fact they couldn't get it back in out on the field. We were due to change him around them, about 55 minutes, anyway. It's just unfortunate it happened that way, but he is absolutely fine."