CRAIG LINGARD has insisted that Castleford Tigers playmaker Luke Hooley still has a future at The Jungle after making a two-week loan move to Featherstone Rovers.
Hooley opened the season for the Tigers at fullback, but he suffered a dislocated shoulder in the Challenge Cup win over Batley Bulldogs and hasn’t featured since,, with Tex Hoy enjoying life as Castleford’s number one as things stand.
Lingard, however, sees Hooley’s long-term future at the Tigers and insists the move is just down to getting game time.
“He’s here for next year is Luke. He has missed the last five weeks with the shoulder injury and then we’ve brought Tex Hoy in and he played really well against London,” Lingard said.
“It works out pretty well for us in respect that Featherstone have a game and then a week off and then we have a week off after that so he is only potentially missing a couple of games for us.
“He needs game time, Luke was really keen to go out and get game time as he was conscious of not getting game time.
“We have got Luke here next year, we are planning on him having next year. We see Luke being a part of our future at Castleford and that has to work for both parties.
“If Luke feels he wants to look elsewhere but we have had no conversations about Luke leaving.”
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