{"id":705436,"date":"2026-07-22T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705436\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T15:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T15:19:11","slug":"bradford-bulls-injury-crisis-deepens-with-club-down-to-last-18-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705436\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradford Bulls injury crisis deepens with club down to last 18 men"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradford Bulls<\/a> are down to their last fit 18 players for Sunday\u2019s trip to Leeds Rhinos \u2013 with Waqa Blake and Mitch Souter the latest players whose seasons have been ended prematurely.<\/p>\n

The Bulls\u2019 injury crisis is showing no signs of easing; in fact, it is getting worse ahead of their first league visit to Headingley in well over a decade this weekend.<\/p>\n

Haggerty admitted they suffered a plethora of blows after last week\u2019s defeat to Wakefield Trinity \u2013 and it has now emerged that some of those are season-ending.<\/p>\n

Bradford injury crisis deepens<\/p>\n

That list includes Waqa Blake, whose knee issue appears to have ended his 2026 barring a miracle that would see him return in the final two rounds of the campaign. He joins Eribe Doro and Ed Chamberlain as players who will not play again this season.<\/p>\n

Mitch Souter is also out for the year having suffered an injury for the reserves, while Cam Bate\u2019s loan spell at Salford RLFC has also been cut short due to an injury.<\/p>\n

There is also further bad news, with Loghan Lewis still unavailable to feature as he waits to see a specialist after swelling on his knee has subsided. He could return to face Hull KR next weekend.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, forward Dan Russell is suffering with a gruesome eye problem that will ensure he misses the trip to Headingley.<\/p>\n

Coach Kurt Haggerty said: \u201cDan won\u2019t play due to an issue with his eye. If he trains and does too much there\u2019s a chance of a bleed behind the eye which could impact him losing his sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he gets specialist clearance he could be clear to play the following week \u2013 so it\u2019s all touch and go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooker Andy Ackers has also not trained this week due to a thumb problem and Haggerty admitted: \u201cWe\u2019re hoping it all settles but if I had to pick the team for this week today, he wouldn\u2019t play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggerty explains Bradford\u2019s injury issues<\/p>\n

The Bulls coach admitted he couldn\u2019t pinpoint the specific reason why the newly-promoted side have struggled so much with injuries.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s hard to put your finger down to the reason why. Mitch has done it playing for the reserves, Waqa has done it for the last two weeks playing on one leg and if I knew, I\u2019d probably be a very rich man right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked how difficult it was to select a 17 for the game, Haggerty admitted: \u201cIt\u2019s not been too difficult, it\u2019s who\u2019s left, will play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guy Armitage is available, as is import forward Phoenix Steinwede, with both overcoming their own injury issues to take their place in what will seemingly be a reduced Bradford squad.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE NEW EPISODE OF THE LRL PODCAST!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bradford Bulls are down to their last fit 18 players for Sunday\u2019s trip to Leeds Rhinos \u2013 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705436","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\/705436","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=705436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}