{"id":451589,"date":"2026-03-01T07:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451589\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T07:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T07:21:12","slug":"leigh-leopards-boss-bleak-recruitment-update-amid-injury-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/451589\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Leopards boss&#8217; bleak recruitment update amid injury crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leigh boss Adrian Lam says the Leopards will \u2018keep their options open\u2019 on the recruitment front, but will battle on with what they have at their disposal for now.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday night saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/tag\/leigh-leopards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leigh<\/a> thumped 54-0 in the \u2018Battle of the Borough\u2019 away against neighbours and rivals Wigan Warriors.<\/p>\n<p>Even putting the result aside, the game proved a costly one for the Leopards: who lost front-rower Joe Ofahengaue and Bailey Hodgson to what appear to be long-term injuries alongside utility Matt Davis failing a HIA after a concussion.<\/p>\n<p>Ofahengaue will be sidelined for at least a month with a calf issue, and full-back Hodgson may be out for the remainder of the year if Leigh\u2019s worst fears around a ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) ring true.<\/p>\n<p>Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a <a rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=loverugbyleague.com\" target=\"_blank\">preferred source on Google<\/a> and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Leopards coach delivers recruitment update amid injury crisis with stance clear<\/p>\n<p>Those injuries add to the absences of state hooker Edwin Ipape through a knee problem and prop Aaron Pene, who is yet to be seen in 2026 and has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, first-choice full-back David Armstrong is expected to be missing until at least Round 8 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.loverugbyleague.com\/super-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super League<\/a> season as he continues his recovery from the ACL injury suffered last year.<\/p>\n<p>Centre Umyla Hanley is another who is yet to play in Super League this term as he nurses an A\/C joint injury picked up in a pre-season friendly against Warrington Wolves.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about potential recruitment in his post-match press conference at Wigan, head coach Lam said: \u201cWe probably just need to keep our options open there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got a really strong squad. The next one in (to the squad) would have been Nathan Wilde, who\u2019s out injured as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen it becomes Louis Brogan, who hasn\u2019t played for eight months after a knee reconstruction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next one then is Ryan Brown, who was 19th man tonight and hasn\u2019t made his (Super League) debut for us yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Leopards \u2013 who next week take on Catalans Dragons \u2013 were already under-strength heading into the heavy defeat at Wigan, evidenced by veteran utility back Gareth O\u2019Brien being named on the bench and playing just 11 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>In those 11 minutes, he covered both half-back \u2013 having replaced off-season recruit Adam Cook \u2013 and full-back once Hodgson had been forced off in tears with a suspected ACL.<\/p>\n<p>But Lam continued: \u201cWe\u2019re okay, we\u2019ll be fine. The players that I\u2019ve got there will do the job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a goal of the first quarter of the season and that\u2019s still on target.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing\u2019s been broken there yet, it\u2019s only Round 3.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leigh boss Adrian Lam says the Leopards will \u2018keep their options open\u2019 on the recruitment front, but will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-451589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451589","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=451589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}