{"id":595365,"date":"2026-05-21T01:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595365\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T01:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T01:39:14","slug":"castleford-tigers-star-signing-closing-in-on-return-but-frustrating-ban-verdict-shared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595365\/","title":{"rendered":"Castleford Tigers star signing closing in on return but \u2018frustrating\u2019 ban verdict shared"},"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 boss Ryan Carr is hopeful of having a star pre-season signing back in action against St Helens on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Fijian winger\/centre Semi Valemei has been out of action for two months, but is \u201cpotentially in the picture\u201d to face Saints, according to Carr.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his weekly preview press conference today (Wednesday), the coach confirmed: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get through a few more days of training this week, but he is starting to close in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not looking at weeks any more, we are looking at days \u2013 it will be a day to day proposition for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being injured in a pre-season, Valemei made a couple of appearances in March, but then picked up a knee problem and has not played since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always hard coming to a new environment and new country,\u201d Carr noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are over here to do what you love, which is play and sometimes that gets taken away from you through injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been hard for him, but he has done a really good job \u2013 his application to training has been unreal and he has ticked every box he can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier with his application, I just want him to get out there and do what he\u2019s good at, which is play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motive for Brodie Croft Rhinos exit & Hull FC\u2019s unwanted record \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Castleford Tigers boss \u2018disappointed\u2019 by forward\u2019s ban<\/p>\n

Carr admitted he is \u201cdisappointed\u201d with a two-game ban which will mean prop George Hirst misses Saturday\u2019s game and the visit of Leigh Leopards two weeks later.<\/p>\n

The RFL\u2019s match review panel charged Hirst with grade D head contact<\/a> after he was sin-binned following a challenge on Justin Sangare during last weekend\u2019s 24-18 win at York Knights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disappointed we couldn\u2019t keep George in the team,\u201d Carr said. \u201cI feel like every week we get through injury-free and we are going to keep the same team for another week, something happens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed for George, he only came back from his own head knock a week earlier, we got him back in the team and I thought he played really well, now he has got a two-week ban. It is hard, we just can\u2019t keep any consistency in the team at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carr felt there was nothing Hirst could do to avoid his collision with Sangare, but stressed Tigers will \u201crespect the decision\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTo avoid that type of collision he would have had to dead-set disappear, which is impossible. It is frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have got to respect the process and the decision and just get on with it, but for him it is a tricky one; you can\u2019t really fight it because the ruling, I think, was based on the player failing an HIA [head injury assessment] more so than the actual action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he [Sangare] is doing okay. He is a great kid, I\u2019ve coached him before and you never want to see anything like that. It is part of the game, I suppose \u2013 you have got to respect the decision and get on with it.\u201d<\/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 boss Ryan Carr is hopeful of having a star pre-season signing back in action against St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-595365","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\/595365","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=595365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}