{"id":511982,"date":"2026-04-04T05:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511982\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T05:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T05:27:17","slug":"castleford-tigers-standout-nearing-injury-return-as-coach-confirms-selection-headache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/511982\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers standout nearing injury return as coach confirms selection headache"},"content":{"rendered":"

\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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers are close to getting one of their standout players back from a long-term injury.<\/p>\n

Tigers Captain Alex Mellor broke his leg in the round two loss to Toulouse Olympique on February 21st and is yet to play since then, however, he could be set for a return when Castleford face Wigan in a fortnight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is getting there,\u201d head coach Ryan Carr<\/a> said of the back-rower, adding: \u201cHe is progressing really well and ticking all the boxes he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the bone that has to heal, but (he should be back) in the next couple of weeks. It\u2019s the Challenge Cup next weekend, which we don\u2019t have a fixture in, but after that we play Wigan and we\u2019d assume he\u2019ll be back by then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr also offered clarification on winger Mikaele Ravalawa and why he didn\u2019t feature last week against Bradford Bulls, noting that the Fijian had a leg injury and wasn\u2019t simply dropped.<\/p>\n

The coach said: \u201cHe picked up a knock. We are investigating that and trying to get to the bottom of it, but it\u2019s not too serious. If not this week, it (his return) will probably be the following week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie Peters, Brad Arthur\u2019s Leeds Rhinos future, RTS and Rivals Round previewed \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers boss facing \u2018good headache\u2019 as bodies return<\/p>\n

Carr will name his initial 21-man squad at noon today (Friday) for Sunday\u2019s home derby with Wakefield Trinity and in a positive headache, he is now having to make decisions on who to leave out, rather than how to put 17 players on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a few players available for selection who weren\u2019t last week, through injuries and things like that,\u201d Carr added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have people missing out, that is a good headache to have as a coach and something we haven\u2019t had much this year. We\u2019ve had heaps of head knocks and things that have kept players out for one week and they are back for the next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes it tricky to maintain the same 17 every week, but hopefully we can get a run of luck in that area and then build on that consistency among the group. We have been pretty thin in our roster and we are starting to get a few healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young Winger Jake Thewlis joined on a month-long loan from Warrington Wolves<\/a> this week and he is in contention to debut, possibly as a replacement for outside back Semi Valemei who failed a HIA in the win over the Bulls last Thursday.<\/p>\n

\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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers are close to getting one of their standout players back from a long-term injury. Tigers Captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-511982","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\/511982","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=511982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}