LEIGH LEOPARDS have suffered a cruel double injury blow as the prognosis on John Asiata and Tom Briscoe has been revealed by head coach Adrian Lam.
Both Asiata and Briscoe withdrew early on during Leigh’s 12-4 loss against St Helens and now Lam has revealed that the pair will be out for a minimum of six weeks after suffering grade two tears in their calves.
“Both have got a grade two tear in their calves. John’s is a 12cm tear and Tom is 10cm. That’s between six weeks onwards so it’s long term for both,” Lam said.
“It’s the same amount of time that Edwin Ipape is out. I’m ok with that, it’s not ideal and it’s completely different from what we’ve had in the past.
“It’s a chance for someone else to take the reins. We will change our tactics slightly to adjust but teams lose their influential best players, the ones that can learn without them can go to the next level when they do come back.”
Lam also took umbrage at the heaviness of the Totally Wicked Stadium pitch, with a number of other Leigh players also complaining about tight or strained calves.
“The players are still quite heavy-legged now, we have had to readjust the schedule to make sure the players are freshening up. There was a lot of unhappiness about the heaviness of the field.
“Three or four other players had tight calves and strains, its something we are disappointed about but we can’t change that outcome now.
“Maybe the pitch needs to be looked at now to make sure it doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
Click here to purchase a digital edition of League Express.
Click here to purchase an online edition of League Express through pocketmags.com.
Click here to listen to our new League Express Podcast.
League Express is widely available from local newsagents across the north of England.
