Leeds Rhinos will be without several key players when they travel to face Leigh Leopards on Friday night in their Super League season opener, with reigning Man of Steel Jake Connor among them.
Connor is one of five Rhinos players with starting XIII shirts who won’t feature whilst Leigh have had a turnaround in injury fortune with many of those expected to miss out, instead named.
Both sides were expected to start the new campaign down on numbers as a result of some bad luck in pre-season having played in games that resulted in them losing multiple players, with Leeds’ clash against Bradford seeing them lose four, including Max Simpson to a season-ending ACL and captain Ash Handley to a groin issue.
As for Leigh, their pre-season meeting with Warrington saw Umyla Hanley suffer a shoulder injury, whilst two more were lost to failed Head Injury Assessments.
Leeds even saw prop Mikolaj Oledzki suffer a rib injury in the Challenge Cup on Saturday with doubts over whether the England international would pass fit for this season opener.
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Leigh Leopards squad to face Leeds
Adrian Lam had explained that he was missing 11 players for the club’s Challenge Cup clash against North Wales, though most of those are named in the 21-man squad to face Leeds.
One big name who is included is Umyla Hanley and he’ll be a massive boost for the Leopards on the back of his Dream Team success in 2025.
As expected, David Armstrong (ACL) misses out but so does Aaron Pene (unknown), though the Leopards are generally back to full strength outside of that.
Leigh Leopards 21-man squad: Keanan Brand, Tesi Niu, Umyla Hanley, Josh Charnley, Adam Cook, Lachlan Lam, Joe Ofahengaue, Edwin Ipape, Robbie Mulhern, Frankie Halton, Owen Trout, Isaac Liu, Jacob Alick-Wiencke, Matt Davis, Liam Horne, Bailey Hodgson, Innes Senior, Gareth O’Brien, Jack Hughes, Andrew Badrock, Nathan Wilde
🐆 𝟮𝟭 𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗗 𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗
Lammy’s squad picks for this Friday’s opening game.
Main Match Sponsor: @HilltopProducts pic.twitter.com/5wAxDfAqk9
— Leigh Leopards (@LeighLeopardsRL) February 11, 2026
Leeds Rhinos squad to face Leigh
The Rhinos do receive a big boost in the fact that James McDonnell is named despite previous fears that he might be sidelined for Las Vegas due to his syndesmosis injury.
However, neither Mikolaj Oledzki (ribs) or Keenan Palasia (unknown) are named with backs Maika Sivo (ACL) and Handley (groin) also missing out. Most significant is the fact that Man of Steel Jake Connor is not named, meaning the Rhinos are without five of their starting XIII.
Cameron Smith also misses out, as does new signing Jeremiah Mata’utia with the club naming academy players Oscar Brown and Jacob Stead to complete their 21-man squad.
Leeds Rhinos 21-man squad: Lachie Miller, Harry Newman, Ryan Hall, Brodie Croft, Jarrod O’Connor, Tom Holroyd, Kallum Watkins, James McDonnell, Chris Hankinson, Cooper Jenkins, Ethan O’Neill, Presley Casell, Riley Lumb, Danny Levi, Ned McCormack, Ben Littlewood, Tom Nicholson-Watton, George Brown, Fergie McCormack, Oscar Brown, Jacob Stead
SQUAD NEWS | Our 21-man squad is locked in to take on @LeighLeopardsRL 👊
✅Lachie Miller, James McDonnell & Chris Hankinson all return to the squad after missing last week’s cup clash
MORE ➡️ https://t.co/45D9rE6MAc pic.twitter.com/v9gfDtbFE3
— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) February 11, 2026
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