WIDNES VIKINGS coach Allan Coleman hopes Jumah Sambou will soon be back to bolster the club’s bid for a top-four finish.
The exciting 24-year-old centre is on a season-long loan from Hull KR, but has been limited to five outings because of a hamstring injury.
That follows a disrupted 2025 campaign on loan to Oldham from St Helens, from whom Hull KR signed him on a three-year contract.
Sambou, who played once at first-team level for Saints, scored six tries in eight Roughyeds games before being sidelined by a different hamstring problem.
He has four tries for Widnes, and Coleman said: “We know what he can do and the energy he can bring.”
The coach, who has brought in centre or backrower Andy Badrock and prop Nathan Wilde on loan from Leigh, wants a top-four spot finish to both earn a home tie and avoid being involved in an elimination showdown in the first stage of the ten-team play-offs on the weekend of September 5/6.
After Friday’s 52-8 win at home to Salford, Widnes have 15 victories from 20 league outings.
Still to come are meetings with leaders London Broncos (at home on Sunday), Halifax (away following a Widnes bye round), Workington (home) and Sheffield (away).
Coleman is resigned to being without centre Matty Fleming and backrowers Liam Bent and Morgan McWhirter for the reminder of the year.
So he is pleased to have Badrock, whom he coached at Swinton, and Wilde, both of whom have had previous temporary Widnes stints.
“Andy is a fantastic athlete, and he’ll bring that speed element to us,” he said.
“Nathan is very experienced. He’s a modern-day middle, he can play long minutes, and he’s very intelligent and clever.”