Leeds Rhinos captain Kruise Leeming could be out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in his foot.
The hooker has missed Leeds’ past three matches but further tests have shown his injury to be worse than initially thought.
Head coach Rohan Smith said there was a timescale of between six and twelve weeks on Leeming’s return, meaning he could miss the rest of the season and his World Cup hopes with England are at risk too.
“He’s going to be out for a significant period of time, somewhere around six-to-twelve weeks I’d imagine,” said Smith.
“(A fracture) was always a possibility based on the soreness of his foot a couple of weeks ago. We’ve been very cautious with what we’ve done and it was still sore.
“It’s disappointing for Kruise, he’s had some really big moments and performances for us this season. His aim will be to be back for the last couple of rounds if at all possible.”
Leeds also picked up fresh injuries last week to Sam Walters and Max Simpson, and the season could be over for the latter.
“Max has had a scan and he’s got a lateral ligament tear,” said Smith. “He’ll undergo some visits to the specialist and work out what the course of action is but there’s a chance that he’ll need some surgery.
“Sam has got a unique injury to his knee. It’s something most medical people don’t see very often. I’m not going to attempt to recite the actual injury, it’s just not one of the common ones.
“It may be a short-term injury or it may be more of a medium-term one. Again he’ll have a visit to the consultant later in the week and get a course of action from there.”
Smith added the halfbacks Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer, currently sidelined by thigh and hand injuries respectively, could be back “in the next week or two”.
