KURT HAGGERTY is confident Bradford Bulls are not facing an injury crisis, despite the prospect of seeing four more key players sidelined for a significant period of time.
Both Jayden Nikorima and Luke Hooley were unavailable for Friday’s visit of Leeds Rhinos, while Waqa Blake and Phoenix Steinwede left the field early with knee and lower leg injuries respectively.
Haggerty expects to know more details on Blake and Steinwede’s injuries later this week but admitted after the 24-12 defeat that they both looked “pretty serious”.
Leon Ruan also failed a HIA on Friday night, but with the Bulls not playing this weekend due to being out of the Challenge Cup, he shouldn’t be forced to sit out any games.
It is a different story though for Nikorima and Hooley, who will be unavailable for a prolonged period.
“With Jayden it’s his hamstring – it’s an old injury from his time at Catalans – and he felt a bit of a strain in it in the Castleford game. He trained for most of last week but pulled out of second to last session. So we sent him for a scan and we found the problem, so it’s looking like six to eight weeks.
“Luke has a shoulder injury and it’s quite a tricky one. He’s seeing a specialist on Tuesday and it could either be a few weeks or it could be up to four to six months, so we’re waiting on that.
“I don’t think we’re in a crisis yet, just the same as everyone else, and if I start whinging and moaning about it, it’s no good for us.”
In more positive news, Joe Keyes could also come into contention for the trip to Wakefield after missing the start of the season with a back injury.
The halfback has been suffering from bulging discs, meaning there was initially no time scale for his return, but after returning to training Keyes was named in Bradford’s initial 21-man squad for Leeds. He didn’t make the final 18-man squad, but with a two-week turnaround before the next game, he could be given the nod – especially after Haggerty confirmed fellow halfback Rowan Milnes is currently also nursing some injury concerns.
“Rowan is really struggling with adductor pain and achilles pain,” Haggerty said of Milnes, who missed all three of his attempts at goal on Friday.
“So actually getting him to train at the moment is really difficult, never mind trying to get him practising his goal kicking. We’re pushing him through the pain barrier to even train right now.
“It was Joe’s first week back training with us, so he was a bit off the pace, but he did the majority of the week and showed some really good signs of getting back to being fit.
“He will absolutely benefit from the weekend off, because he now just needs to do a full week of training with us to put himself back in contention to play.”