{"id":606083,"date":"2026-05-27T05:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606083\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T05:58:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:58:13","slug":"bradford-bulls-boss-confirms-potential-return-dates-on-star-trio-as-injury-update-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606083\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradford Bulls boss confirms potential return dates on star trio as injury update issued"},"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

Bradford Bulls look set to be boosted by the return of star trio Andy Ackers, Joe Mellor and Ryan Sutton ahead of their round 13 Super League clash against York Knights.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kurt Haggerty<\/a> has confirmed that the absent trio are either sure to play or in line to play against the Bulls\u2019 fellow promoted club, in a game that holds plenty of weight.<\/p>\n

Bradford have recorded four wins from twelve so far on their return to Super League and all four have come at Odsal, where they will play against the Knights on Friday, June 5th.<\/p>\n

The Bulls\u2019 impressive home form will likely have them favourites for that match anyway but they\u2019ll be even more fancied if that key trio is back, with Haggerty offering a comprehensive injury update after Bradford lost to Warrington Wolves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re okay. Chris Atkin has a dislocated finger and I think Caleb has a split on his eye but we\u2019re okay,\u201d he confirmed when speaking in a presser shared on the club\u2019s YouTube<\/a> channel.<\/p>\n

With a week off, it means players will have a chance to recover but for Haggerty, it means an opportunity to train in a game scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping we can get close to it, 13 on 13 (training), I really do hope we can get to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will help, it helps with repetition and it also puts pressure on players because lads are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brodie Croft\u2019s Leeds Rhinos exit & Hull FC\u2019s unwanted record \u2013\u00a0click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradford Bulls hoping to welcome back five or six for York clash<\/p>\n

Among those coming back could be Andy Ackers who despite being named in the pre-match squad<\/a> ultimately was left out for his own good.<\/p>\n

Haggerty explained: \u201cAckers wanted to play but I made the call not to play him. He wasn\u2019t in a good place with his shoulder and when you\u2019re a hooker, you have to make a lot of tackles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t the right call to play Andy. I\u2019m hoping (he\u2019ll be good in two weeks).\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar call was made on Ryan Sutton, who Haggerty explained has been chomping at the bit but has been held back in the hope that he can return against the Knights.<\/p>\n

The Bulls head coach said: \u201cI think if it was Ryan\u2019s choice, he\u2019d have played for five or ten minutes if he could but ultimately, the medical staff, and my decision was that it wasn\u2019t right to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still way too early. I think York will be a push but I\u2019m pretty sure he\u2019ll play against York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggerty also explained that Joe Mellor will be back for the game against York and so could a number of others with Haggerty teasing:\u00a0\u201cWe could be looking at potentially five or six players back for the York game.\u201d<\/p>\n

A loss to the Knights would see Bradford leapfrogged on the Super League ladder by their fellow promoted side, whilst a win could see them climb as high as ninth dependent on Castleford Tigers and Hull FC results.<\/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":"Bradford Bulls look set to be boosted by the return of star trio Andy Ackers, Joe Mellor and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606083","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\/606083","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=606083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}