Tigers issue an Injury Update

The news of Castleford’s 21-man squad for the first home match of the 2020 campaign against Wigan this Friday brought up a few surprises, mainly five young Tigers who will be competing to make their First Team competitive debuts.

Whilst it’s unusual to have such a number of injuries so early in the season Matty has provided supporters with an insight into the club’s current injury list and he’s got good news for fans with several First Team players expected back on duty next week.

“Pre-season has been great for the players and they look well but the manner that we’ve lost men in the last week has been unbelievable,” he said.

“As you’ll see from our list of players injured with all but a couple of them there is absolutely nothing you can do as they were unavoidable in collision or just plain freakish.

“Concussions to three of our main players in week one is unbelievable, and we’re bound to do what we need to do protocol wise. However, it’s a chance for some of our young kids who have had a big pre-seasons and fans should be excited and confident in them wanting to do a good job.

“Other teams will and are going through it and it’s rotten luck, but we’ve got a lot of bodies coming back in for next week. The good side is that with the kids coming in it could prove to be more fruitful for us in the future.”

George Griffin, Adam Milner and Tyla Hepi

“Our three concussion guys, I have never seen this before to have three in one game and we know Griffin was ruled straight out from his head injury assessment. Adz passed his test and was absolutely fine and continued to play on, even scoring, but two days later he suffered headaches and vomiting so he had some delayed concussion symptoms. Tyla took a whack in the game, nothing major, he went through but then told us a couple of days later that he couldn’t remember some parts of the game.

“So, we have to do the right thing by our players and follow concussion protocols and rightly so, as such all three will miss out this week. It’s the most I’ve ever had in a game. None of them have had much trouble with concussions in the last year and that means they should be available next week against Catalans.”

Junior Moors

Junior has had the all-clear from the consultant for the past couple of weeks and has been in full training for two weeks including full contact. He will be looking to play as soon as possible and could be up for selection for Friday night’s game against Wigan.

Mike McMeeken

For Mike it was a soft tissue tear in his calf before Christmas and he’ll be back in full training next week and should be available for selection for the game against Catalans.

Sosaia Feki

Following the friendly against Toronto, Sosaia suffered a calf tear and it’s a four to six weeks rehab, so he’ll be back for match selection within the next two to four weeks.

Matt Cook

Unfortunately, Matt has had some disc issues with his back which led to him struggling in pre-season and he’s had some neural problems which have settled following some intervention. On the back of that he’s had some calf issues which could be linked to his back. He’ll be back training within the next week, with an aim to return to playing within the next month.

Alex Foster

Alex is looking really well and is just waiting on the consultant to discharge him in the next couple of weeks and he’ll be back in full training within those couple of weeks with an aim to be playing in the team in March, which is on track.

Jesse Sene-Lefao

Following the friendly against Toronto he got a dead leg to his left quad from a contact and he’s a couple of weeks into his rehab and only just walking normally. They can be bad ones these, it’s four to six weeks before you see people back in training so we’re not too sure about his return to play at the moment.

Greg Eden

People will have seen on TV the massive hyper extension knee and it’s something he’s had since he was a kid. His knee does go into a very awkward position, he’s done it a couple of times throughout his career and it’s why he played on and feeling like he was fine. I wasn’t too sure when I watched the replay back and it looked horrendous, so we’ve put him in a brace and taken him for a scan. He’s damaged his capsule at the back of his knee and you would expect that he’s going to have some trauma there, so we’re going to see a specialist and we’ll know more then. The good news is that every single ligament in his knee is perfect and intact which is amazing when you see that injury back.

Calum Turner

He’s had a great pre-season but unfortunately in the Widnes friendly he pulled up with an issue called osteitis pubis but mechanically he’s fine and we’ve kept him out for a couple of weeks. He’s back at full pace now and into training at the end of this week and fit for the week after.

Joe Summers

Massive pre-season for Joe, I feel so sorry for him, he’s had a great pre-season but he’s suffered a fractured foot in the Widnes friendly. It’s only a hairline fracture and he’ll be out of the boot in the next four weeks and then when he’s out of it he’ll be back pretty quick, so four to six weeks I think he’ll be returning to play.

Reserves Players

Reserves players Jacob Doyle, Joe Fella, Kieran Carr, Louis Collinson, Declan Gregory and Brad Jinks are also currently side-lined with injuries ahead of the new Reserves season starting for Castleford.