LEEDS RHINOS star Alfie Edgell will miss the start of the 2026 Super League season, whilst Maika Sivo is “touch and go” to make the fixture against Leigh Leopards in Round One.
Edgell suffered an injury in Leeds’ win over Wakefield Trinity on Boxing Day, whilst Sivo hasn’t played for almost a year following an ACL problem.
And Arthur has given a prognosis on both.
“Maika and Alfie are the only ones. Maika is touch and go but outside of that everyone is good to play,” Arthur said.
“Maika hasn’t had a setback. He’s a big man so we’ve taken it a bit slower with him.”
So just how has Arthur’s second pre-season gone in charge of Leeds?
“It’s been enjoyable, it’s been different to our first pre-season. Our first pre-season was about mentality training and mileage and building some resilience with increasing their training loads,” Arthur continued.
“I call it dumb running, without having to concentrate on things. This year, we have still trained hard but trained smarter. We have trained a lot more with the ball.
“We have trained at a higher intensity and a lot faster. Last season was a lot about systems in place and it was a bit stop-start.
“This year we have been able to integrate it all because we are used to the systems. I have been able to step back and let them coach themselves almost.
“A focus for us on the back of last season was where we got it wrong was decision making in big moments in big games.
“We have been able to put the players in scenarios to create the same look they were getting in those games.”
So does Arthur feel his team are better prepared?
“We won’t know until we get into the games but I’d be disappointed if we weren’t
“I feel like we should be in a better place than we were last year and it looks like that from our training.
“We’ve got to transfer it onto the field. I’m a lot more comfortable that the players can solve the problems on the field.”