{"id":310910,"date":"2025-12-11T23:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310910\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:12:10","slug":"leigh-leopards-receive-huge-david-armstrong-injury-boost-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310910\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards receive huge David Armstrong injury boost for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leigh are set to welcome David Armstrong back from his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in early March, sooner than first anticipated, Leopards boss Adrian Lam has confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong eventually succumbed to a ruptured ACL he had been playing through the pain barrier with for a number of weeks as he left the field during Leigh\u2019s 48-30 defeat to Leeds Rhinos at Headingley on June 27.<\/p>\n<p>The full-back was the Leopards\u2019 marquee recruit ahead of 2025, signing from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/nrl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NRL<\/a> outfit Newcastle Knights, and had scored eight tries in 15 appearances across all competitions by the time his season was ended.<\/p>\n<p>Having surgery soon after, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/tag\/leigh-leopards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leigh<\/a> confirmed that Armstrong was staring down the barrel of a nine-month recovery time, which would have seen him sidelined until April.<\/p>\n<p>But now, he and the Leopards have been given a big boost, with his recovery going better than expected.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh receive major David Armstrong boost as Leopards boss issues positive injury update<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to a selection of media \u2013 including LoveRugbyLeague \u2013 earlier this month during their 2026 home kit launch, head coach Lam explained that they now expect Armstrong to return for their Round 4 clash against Catalans Dragons on March 6.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, hometown hero Louis Brogan has also had surgery on his knee having been sidelined since mid-June, and he will be ready for the start of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Lam detailed: \u201cEveryone\u2019s back in, barring a couple of the international players who are off until the New Year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid Armstrong, who missed the majority of the year, is looking good. He\u2019s put on five or six kilograms, which is what was asked of him in this time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLouis Brogan has had a knee reconstruction as well as Davey, so those players look really good.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited about those players coming back into the picture at some point.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid Armstrong will be (back) around Round 4, we believe, unless things accelerate from here. That looks like his arrival time back into the team.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLouis Brogan, I think, will be ready for Round 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Armstrong will still miss Leigh\u2019s opening three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/super-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> games in 2026 \u2013 consisting of a home game against Leeds Rhinos before back-to-back trips to St Helens and Wigan Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>The week after he is expected to return at home against Catalans Dragons, there is a break in the Super League calendar as the Fourth Round of the Challenge Cup takes place.<\/p>\n<p>Lam\u2019s side will be involved in that, providing they are able to see off lower-league opposition away from home in the Third Round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh are set to welcome David Armstrong back from his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury in early March,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-310910","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\/310910","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=310910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}