{"id":156255,"date":"2025-09-23T21:02:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/156255\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T21:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T21:02:10","slug":"leigh-leopards-v-wakefield-trinity-early-team-news-with-six-ruled-out-and-two-doubts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/156255\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards v Wakefield Trinity early team news with six ruled out and two doubts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AW6_0667.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Leopards host Wakefield Trinity on Friday night in the first of the Super League play-off matches with one key man out through injury.<\/p>\n<p>The Leopards recorded their highest-ever finish in Super League, placing third to guarantee them a home play-off tie and set up a tie with Wakefield Trinity.<\/p>\n<p>Daryl Powell\u2019s side enter the play-offs in good form with their Round 26 win over Hull KR a particular standout, blitzing the League Leaders Shield winners in the first half.<\/p>\n<p>Having beaten Leigh on the road already this season, they\u2019ll fancy their chances but the Leopards\u2019 home form is strong with that defeat to Wakefield one of just three losses the Leigh Sports Village in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the press conferences and the 21-man squad announcements, we\u2019ve looked at the early team news including which players are doubts and those who are ruled out.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Leopards team news<\/p>\n<p>Gareth O\u2019Brien is among the players who Leigh will be concerned about with the half, who has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/leigh-leopards-announce-contract-extension-for-key-man-with-grand-final-ambition-laid-out-108691\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> just signed a new one-year deal<\/a>, needing stitches for a cut on his hand sustained in the win last week over Huddersfield.<\/p>\n<p>A big boost is the return of Edwin Ipape who had been suspended for the round 27 clash against Huddersfield, whilst Ethan O\u2019Neill (hamstring) is also in line to return.<\/p>\n<p>The second-rower has missed a number of games but should be fine to play meaning the biggest issues for Adrian Lam would be selection headaches, as opposed to injury woes.<\/p>\n<p>Full-back David Armstrong (ACL) is out until early next season whilst Louis Brogan (knee) is another who will miss out with the Leopards generally in good health.<\/p>\n<p>Wakefield Trinity team news<\/p>\n<p>The key loss for Wakefield is full-back Max <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/super-league-injuries-as-st-helens-and-wakefield-trinity-lose-key-men-ahead-of-play-offs-108658\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jowitt who failed a HIA<\/a> early on against Salford Red Devils, ruling him out automatically.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s another blow to their backs with Corey Hall (foot) previously<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seriousaboutrl.com\/rugby-league-news-wakefield-trinity-injury-blow-as-in-form-man-ruled-out-for-season-107353\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> ruled out for the year after undergoing an operation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Isaiah Vagana looked to suffer a season-ending injury against Huddersfield in late August so he\u2019s another who will miss out, with Caleb Hamlin-Uele also absent from an otherwise strong forward pack.<\/p>\n<p>Serious About Rugby League has launched a brand new podcast which can be watched in full on our <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=zXgPI1xykFw&amp;t=1402s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube channel here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757322609_374_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards host Wakefield Trinity on Friday night in the first of the Super League play-off matches with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-156255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}