Why Leeds Rhinos' James McDonnell didn't play v Wigan Warriors as young forward's injury confirmed
Young forward Zak Lloyd is an injury doubt for Leeds Rhinos’ final game of the regular season, but three senior players are expected to return.
Rhinos lost full-back Lachie Miller to what could be a season-ending hamstring problem just seven minutes into their 40-8 home loss to Wigan Warriors. He was replaced by teenage forward Lloyd, who again impressed before taking a knock and going off just before the hour.
Ironically, Lloyd wasn’t initially expected to play. Fellow second-rower James McDonnell, who had missed the previous two matches with a pectoral muscle injury, was set to return on the bench, but withdrew after the final training session.
He, winger Maika Sivo and forward Keenan Palasia will all come into the side for Friday’s visit of Hull FC, if they get through this week unscathed. Coach Brad Arthur said: “They were probably one or two sessions short. Macca actually trained in the team; we had planned on him playing, but he got to the end of the session and just felt like he wasn’t ready to do his job, so we made a late change with Lloydy.”
Of Lloyd, the team boss explained: “It’s his ribs. He got a whack there, he got a needle at half-time and it got to the stage where he couldn’t stay on any longer.”
Rhinos fans in the capacity crowd weren’t happy with referee Liam Moore and Arthur was asked after the game if he felt his side were victim of some harsh decisions. He said: “I need to go back and have a look at them first before I make too much comment, but I thought there was a couple of tough ones.”
But he stressed: “We need to be more resilient. We can’t just give away a penalty and then concede straight away, four or five tackles later. We need to have a look at that.”