Castleford Tigers centre Zac Cini is a man under the spotlight after speculation over the past few days linking him with a move away from the club.

Cini, who has been filling in at full-back in recent weeks due to the injury to star signing Blake Taaffe, was a shock exclusion from the side’s victory over Wigan Warriors at the weekend.

Young playmaker Fletcher Rooney played in his place, leaving the former Parramatta man to play in the reserve grade side later that afternoon.

With local neighbours Bradford Bulls currently going through an injury crisis, reports from LoveRugbyLeague suggested that Cini could be on the outer, however Bradford’s lack of quota spaces hampered that move.

Putting an end to any speculation, Tigers boss Ryan Carr has confirmed that Cini will be staying put at the club, and rejected any notion that the 25-year-old would be exiting the Onebore Stadium.

He’s part of our squad at the moment. I don’t read the media, so I’m not sure what people are saying outside of our organisation.

But, yeah, as it stands right now, he’s part of our squad for this weekend and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Castleford Tigers boss hoping for stability in team selection

Fellow outside-back Semi Valemei is another player who was named in the 20-man squad to face Wigan, but he wasn’t selected, with hamstring injuries hampering his start to life in West Yorkshire.

Carr revealed that the Fijian is in doubt for this week too, with a selection call to be made on him later in the week.

“Again, it’s sort of a week-to-week, day-to-day, week-to-week proposition right now with Semi.

“He’s working hard as he can. We just want to make sure that when he is back, he’s back for good.”

Even if Valemei was able to pass a fitness test, Carr doesn’t want to make too many changes, if at all, following such a good performance over Wigan.

The Castleford boss said there will be “minimal” changes, if any at all as he looks for consistency in his sides efforts week-on-week.

“Other than injury pick-ups, yeah, that’s the plan,” Carr said. “We’ve got a couple of knocks here and there, so we’ll just make sure that we pick the fittest, healthiest possible team to go out there and compete hard tomorrow night.”

Wigan Warriors’ worries, Hull FC drama and NRL takeover talk – click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show