Daryl Powell has addressed Castleford’s lengthy injury list ahead of their clash with Widnes.
The Tigers are currently dealing with TEN injuries within their squad, leaving Powell with a depleted squad to deal with. Among those injuries are two season-ending injuries, while others are closing in on a return.
Castleford’s injury list
Luke Dorn: hamstring – six weeks
Powell said: “Dorny had a severe hamstring injury, 80% of his hamstring was torn so that was a pretty significant injury. He’s now about six weeks away from playing, that timescale can change depending on how he develops over the next few weeks, but it was a bad hamstring tear.”
Ben Roberts: foot – one week
Powell said: “Benny’s has been a really awkward one, it’s been a frustrating injury for himself and for us in that he has had a couple of fitness tests and failed them and we’d decided this week, that rather than aggravate it any further, that we just need to get him right. We are hopeful that in the near future, possibly next week that he’ll be back. Obviously there are no guarantee’s there but we want him back on the field as soon as we can, and he’s working really hard towards that goal.”
Grant Millington: quad – one week
Powell said: “Millo has a slight tear in his quad which took him out during the Huddersfield game and made life pretty awkward for us on our rotations. He won’t play this week but potentially he could be back next week. He’s another one we’ll have to look at as we go through the week.”
Jy Hitchcox: fingers – one week
Powell said: “We’re not sure exactly what happened but he looks to have dislocated three fingers during the Leeds game, causing a lot of bleeding and strain on the tendons in his hand. He’s had a lot of bruising which has made life really difficult for him. He’s then played on through the Catalans and Huddersfield games, I mentioned after the Huddersfield game that he’d needed around 25 injections to play. Jy has only had a couple of training sessions over the last few weeks, basically, train then play, and it’s been really tough for him. We are trying to give him as much rest as we can, having two wingers available this week will hopefully really help us. He could have played but would have needed another plethora of injections to get through it.”
Oliver Holmes: hamstring – one week
Powell said: “Holmes is progressing well and we are hopefully he’ll be back for the Wigan game. He’s another one who’ll we’ll check as we go through next week. He pulled up in a training session and we need to make sure he is right before he takes the field, but we are hopeful that in the near future he’ll be okay.”
Junior Moors: hand – two weeks
Powell said: “Junior’s surgeon has put another plaster on his hand for another couple of weeks, and we are going to chase after that a little bit to see if that can be taken off a little earlier. At the moment he is going to be back for the Hull KR game. It could be Wigan but at the moment it is Hull KR.”
Ben Crooks: kidney – four weeks
Powell said: “Crooksy could be out for four weeks. He got bruising on his kidneys during the Huddersfield game which caused bleeding in his urine and made life pretty difficult for him. Again we will chase up on this, but at the moment its four weeks on the sidelines.”
Frankie Mariano: knee – unknown
Powell said: “Frank has to go back to see a specialist. He has an injury to the same knee and scans are showing there’s not too much damage but he is still getting some pain in there. He’ll go back to see the specialist and we’ll get a diagnosis from there.”
“Both Michael Shenton and Ash Robson continue to work hard with the rehab of their long-term injuries.”
