{"id":97150,"date":"2025-08-27T20:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T20:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97150\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T20:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T20:41:13","slug":"leeds-rhinos-dealt-injury-blow-as-key-man-to-miss-hull-fc-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97150\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds Rhinos dealt injury blow as key man to miss Hull FC clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Leeds\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

Leeds Rhinos will be without one of their most influential players for at least the next two games.<\/p>\n

Co-captain Ash Handley has been ruled out of Saturday\u2019s visit to Hull FC and the match at Huddersfield Giants five days later, coach Brad Arthur confirmed today.<\/p>\n

Handley joins fellow outside-backs Maika Sivo, Ethan Clark-Wood and Alfie Edgell on the casualty list, but Mikolaj Oledzki is ready to return from a five-game absence and fellow prop Cooper Jenkins could be available this weekend after two matches out of the side.<\/p>\n

Handley is ever-present at centre for Rhinos<\/a> this year, but has been struggling with a groin issue and limped out of last Friday\u2019s 28-6 win over Hull KR.<\/p>\n

Speaking at his weekly preview press conference, Arthur said: \u201cHe is struggling a bit. We still haven\u2019t got a full grip on exactly what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know he will be out for a couple of weeks and we are going to see if it settles. He\u2019s seeing some specialists at the moment, but he definitely won\u2019t be playing for the next couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arthur admitted: \u201cHe has been great. It is a blow, but we\u2019ve had plenty of those this year and we have worked really hard not to focus on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more disappointing for Ash as an individual because of how well he has been playing. He has really developed into that leadership role of being a captain, but \u2013 again \u2013 other blokes need to step up into the role.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not so much the guy who takes the position, other guys have got to step up and own their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve done that for most of the season and last week was evidence of that. We were down four starting middles, the guys who were out there did their job and Keenan [Palasia] rose to the occasion and really led from the front. It just puts some more responsibility and accountability on some other blokes in the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clark-Wood has a shoulder injury and won\u2019t play again this year and Arthur said Edgell\u2019s foot injury is \u201cclose\u201d to being season-ending.<\/p>\n

Winger Riley Lumb could come into the side at Hull and Arthur revealed centres Max Simpson and Ned McCormack are also options.<\/p>\n

Simpson has played only two reserve games since suffering a knee injury in the 2023 pre-season. McCormack featured for Leeds Rhinos\u2019 second-string two weeks ago, ending 13 months on the sidelines with a hamstring issue.<\/p>\n

Arthur said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got Ned and Max, we can make some adjustments to the forward pack \u2013 we\u2019ve been toying around with a few things and will make a final decision\u00a0 on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation in the forwards is more encouraging. Arthur confirmed Oledzki (fractured cheekbone) and Jenkins (ankle) both trained today and said: \u201cI think Mik\u2019s definite [for Saturday] and Cooper, we\u2019ll see how he pulls up tomorrow, but he looked to be pretty good.\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":"Leeds Rhinos will be without one of their most influential players for at least the next two games.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-97150","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\/97150","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=97150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}