CASTLEFORD TIGERS have been rocked by a serious injury to Zac Cini, with the centre set to be out for a month with facial fractures.
Cini left the field in last week’s defeat to St Helens with an eye injury and went straight to hospital after appearing bloodied on the field.
Castleford’s interim head coach Chris Chester said: “Zac Cini has a few facial fractures in and around the eye socket. He is in for surgery today, (Wednesday).
“We will probably be looking at around four weeks for Zac. We will need to put a plate in there.
“He’s probably been our more consistent player this year as his yardage carries are really good.
“It was a bit of friendly fire. It was an elbow from Sam Wood and he got a significant gash, it swelled up straightaway and couldn’t see out of that eye.
“He went straight to hospital and unfortunately for Zac. He will miss the next month.”
Chester is looking for an improvement in intensity and energy levels against Hull KR.
He said: “I can cop getting beat by the better side. Saints were the better side but we should never get beat on effort and that’s what disappointed me more than anything.
“Against Warrington, our effort levels were really high but we put in a sub-par performance against Saints.”