Leigh Leopards host Leeds Rhinos on Friday night in Super League in one of the games of the round but plenty of players could miss out.
It’s confirmed that five will miss out, however, there are also plenty of injury doubts as well for the meeting at the Leigh Sports Village.
This game is the only match of Super League Round One that pits two teams from the 2025 Super League play-offs up against one another, highlighting the class that is on show.
Both teams came through tough tests on Saturday in the Challenge Cup but Friday night’s meeting will be their first true test. These teams put up a classic last year at Headingley when Leeds won 48-30, however, both coaches will want a far tighter defensive performance this week.
Ahead of the squads being confirmed, we’ve looked at the injury status of each side with some early team news revealed.
Leigh Leopards team news
Leigh will certainly be without full-back David Armstrong who suffered a setback in his recovery from an ACL injury, meaning he will be out until around April with round eight previously revealed as a possible return date.
Another exciting back who is a doubt is last year’s Dream Team centre Umyla Hanley with Hanley injuring his AC joint in the pre-season loss to Warrington Wolves, something that could have healed in time for Friday.
That game also saw HIA failures for Joe Ofahengaue and Liam Horne, both of whom should be fine now, though neither man played against North Wales this past weekend.
Nor did Matty Davis (leg), Isaac Liu or Aaron Pene, with that trio among the eleven players that Adrian Lam said he would not have available for that game. He did confirm that most of those would be back for Super League round one but it’s unclear which players. Robbie Mulhern who was among that 11-strong injury list did play against North Wales.
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Leeds Rhinos team news
Leeds will definitely be without four players, three of whom are outside backs, with the club having somewhat of an injury crisis there at the moment. Max Simpson tore his ACL in the pre-season game against Bradford whilst Alfie Edgell has undergone quad surgery after his Boxing Day injury.
Maika Sivo isn’t expected to play with Brad Arthur previously setting the round two game with York as his target with the winger in the final stages of recovering from the ACL injury sustained last pre-season. James McDonnell is the other who is definitely out after a syndesmosis injury, meaning he will likely miss Las Vegas.
A few others remain doubts but with some more so than others, including Mikolaj Oledzki. The England international suffered a rib injury in the win over Widnes with Brad Arthur confirming the prop “didn’t look great”. Cameron Smith also picked up a slight groin issue in that game but is more likely to feature.
Other prior injuries include Chris Hankinson (broken nose), Ash Handley (groin) and Jeremiah Mata’utia (knee) with all three considered doubts. Keenan Palasia also previously suffered a knock but is expected to pass fit for Friday’s game.
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