Castleford Tigers coach Daryl Powell has revealed that nine of his first-team squad will not play again this season due to injury.
The Tigers have been severely hampered with injury problems throughout the course of 2016, with a whole host of key names missing large chunks of the season.
And Powell afforded Cas fans an injury update during their free week for the Challenge Cup final, revealing plenty of his squad won’t be seen on the field again this year.
“Joel is out for the season following his shoulder operation. He’s on a recovery protocol that will hopefully see him come good for pre season but yeah, he’ll be missing for the rest of this season,” Powell said, beginning with Joel Monaghan.
Powell also confirmed half-back Ben Roberts is out for the year but will return for pre-season training, before continuing: “Andy (Lynch) had an operation on his hand on Monday. He’s in recovery now, it’s been something that’s been ongoing for him. His leg hasn’t healed as quickly as we though it might do so we made the decision for him to have the operation on his hand now, but he will now be out for the rest of the season.”
A hand operation ruled Nathan Massey out for the season several weeks ago – and prop Lee Jewitt is also out for the entirety of 2016, meaning he has played his last game for the club.
“Frankie (Mariano) has gone for the season too, we think he might have broken ribs and damaged rib cartilage (during the Warrington match on Saturday) and that’s really painful,” Powell added. “He needs further checks but he won’t play again this year.”
Powell also confirmed three more members of his squad are out for the season: winger Jy Hitchcox, as well as youngsters Tom Holmes and Ash Robson. However, there is some good news on the injury front for Cas fans concerning Jake Webster and Mike McMeeken.
“Jake is nearing (full) fitness again, he’s had a couple of training sessions now and he is building up and getting better by the day so we’ll check on him next week to see if he is available for the Wakefield game on 4th September, I am hopeful that he will be. Mike is similar to Jake, he’s close to playing and we just need to see how he goes over the coming week and then we’ll make a decision on whether he’ll play against Wakefield on the 4th September.”
