Castleford’s game with Leeds Rhinos could be cancelled tomorrow after the Tigers reported three positive Covid-19 tests.
The positive cases have resulted in six further players being stood down, leaving Castleford with just 14 fit players for the match.
Three Castleford players will be given late fitness checks on Thursday morning to determine whether they can play or not, however, head coach Daryl Powell suggested the game would not take place if they couldn’t field a full side.
“It’s rattled us as a group, we’re in trouble here with Covid, we have a significant number injured, some long term some medium-term.
“Clearly we can’t play with 14 players. We’re really struggling in the outside backs, some of the players injured are outside backs. We’ve just got a lot of issues there, some of our younger players stood down as well, it looks like an impossible task at the moment.”
Powell continued: “Obviously we’re in a difficult position, that’s why we’re leaving it as late as possible. It’s not something we can do anything about at the moment.
“We’ve been in communication with Leeds and the RFL to tell them about our situation. It will be a decision in the morning for us to make but clearly, you can’t go into a game with 14 fit players so that’s all I’ll say on that.”
The Tigers have the right to call off the game should they wish, with the RFL rulings stating a club can postpone a game if they have seven or more players unavailable due to Covid-19.
But Powell confirmed they would rather the game go ahead.
