{"id":632093,"date":"2026-06-11T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/632093\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T00:00:11","slug":"bradford-bulls-dealt-possible-season-ending-injury-and-star-man-50-50-for-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/632093\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradford Bulls dealt possible season-ending injury and star man \u201850\/50\u2019 for weekend"},"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

Despite several players returning in recent weeks, Bradford Bulls have been handed an injury blow with Jayden Okunbor potentially out for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kurt Haggerty<\/a> has put a three-month timeline on the back\u2019s recovery, taking us into September and near the final few rounds of the season, at which point the Bulls could well focus on preserving the 29-year-old for 2027.<\/p>\n

Haggerty had confirmed that Okunbor would see a specialist<\/a> and he revealed the results at his presser on Wednesday, confirming: \u201cWe\u2019re probably looking around three months for Jayden. It\u2019s another injury for us, and it\u2019s not great for Jayden, but we\u2019re there to support him and help him and hopefully get him back as quickly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bulging disc in the back for Okunbor, something that Haggerty confirmed was a longstanding issue: \u201cI think it\u2019s an ongoing injury. Obviously, when you\u2019ve been in a part-time environment, you can\u2019t get the best treatment that you can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just flared up, got worse and worse, back into a full-time environment, training at probably a little bit higher intensity and obviously a lot more difficult games. I think it\u2019s just caught up with him a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Arthur commits to Leeds Rhinos, Hull KR lose back-to-back and Captain\u2019s Challenge rule debated \u2013 Click here to listen to this week\u2019s episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradford Bulls boss on managing minutes and Jayden Nikorima concern<\/p>\n

In regards who best to replace Okunbor, the Bradford head coach identified Connor Wynne, Guy Armitage and even Luke Hooley as options for the Bulls\u2019 home game against Leigh on Sunday.<\/p>\n

One man who remains a doubt for the game is playmaker Jayden Nikorima, who suffered what Haggerty described as a stinger on his shoulder in the win over York.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s still 50-50 at the moment, he\u2019s not trained today, but I\u2019m hoping he\u2019s OK for Sunday, he\u2019s telling me he\u2019s OK, so fingers crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Atkin and Riley Dean will be options to play in the halves if Nikorima does not but Joe Keyes could soon become an option again, with Haggerty announcing that the playmaker is back in training.<\/p>\n

He announced: \u201cHe\u2019s had his surgery, and he did his first weights session this week, so he\u2019s been really positive around the place. It was great to see Joe with a smile on his face, and it was great to see him get through his first weights session.\u201d<\/p>\n

With injuries having been such a concern throughout the season and Okunbor now potentially done for the year, Haggerty was asked about the prospect of minute management for some of the more senior players, with the likes of Joe Mellor and Ryan Sutton both instrumental so far but also fresh off injuries.<\/p>\n

Haggerty admitted: \u201cIt\u2019s interesting, because if it was up to me, I wouldn\u2019t be playing them as long as they probably are but they\u2019re two experienced players, they tell me what they can and can\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, today we\u2019ve looked after them both in training, but that\u2019s reluctantly from them. So we\u2019re trying to look after them constantly, but they\u2019re elite professionals, they know what it looks like, they\u2019ve played a lot of top-level games, so they dictate to me before I dictate to them.\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":"Despite several players returning in recent weeks, Bradford Bulls have been handed an injury blow with Jayden Okunbor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-632093","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\/632093","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=632093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}