Hull Kingston Rovers head coach Tony Smith has revealed that Matt Parcell and Dean Hadley are “touch and go” for the trip to Catalans Dragons this week, while Lachlan Coote is again unlikely to play.
Last week’s victory over Salford Red Devils brought a couple of injury concerns with hooker Parcell suffering a dead leg and back-row Hadley picking up a calf issue.
Both are rated as doubts ahead of Rovers’ trip across the Channel to play Catalans on Friday night.
Smith said: “It’ll be touch and go for this week. If they’re not right they won’t play.
“Matty is a dead leg and it was a knock to the calf for Deano. He’s had an issue with that calf before
“We’ll see how they run it off in the next couple of days.”
Coote has struggled with his hamstring since the start of the season, playing only one of the past four matches.
Having not risked the fullback last week, Smith says it is likely to be the same again for Coote this time.
“He probably won’t make it,” he said. “It’s a fair pressure when you come to a new club, you want to get out there and show your team mates and everybody your worth, but I think he’ll show his worth further down the track.
“I’d rather him take a couple of weeks off and not have it play on his mind than try and rush back in order to prove a point to people.”
Smith has warned the side that does go on to line up in Perpignan
that the Dragons, who beat the Robins in last year’s play-off semi-final, will bring a stronger test and a challenge that must be met.
“We’re going to be tested in a different way this week to last week,” he said. “There’s a different attacking prowess to our opponents. They’re going to throw some heavy artillery at us through the middle.
“They’re playing well, they’re confident. I think we need to be able to perform and keep some of those standards we had last week, but we’re also going up a peg or two in terms of opposition.”
