Adrian Lam makes Josh Charnley call as opportunity knocks for Leigh Leopards winger

Adrian Lam has confirmed that Josh Charnley will be staying put at Leigh Leopards after suggestions that he could be allowed to leave the club on loan.

Charnley has been out of favour in recent months and over the course of the campaign he has made just seven appearances in all competitions. As such, with the veteran struggling for minutes there was talk of him being allowed to leave Leigh Sports Village for a temporary period to pick up some minutes.

However, Darnell McIntosh’s knee injury has opened the door for the 34-year-old to come back into the fold and he’s expected to feature on the wing on Friday night when the Leopards host Wigan Warriors at Leigh Sports Village.

Leigh Leopards boss on Josh Charnley

“I think I’m happy to put Josh straight back in there,” Lam said on Charnley’s chances of playing this week. “He’s certainly a big game player, he’s got experience, he’s up there with the top try-scorers, we need people to score tries at the moment.

“Josh will get back in there and start on the left wing. Having said that AJ Towse is very close and he’s done some amazing things for us in training in pre-season and he’s edging, he’s very close.”

“We’ll make that decision today and moving forward I’m looking forward to seeing those two battle for the shirt.”

Asked whether that meant Charnley wouldn’t be going out on loan, Lam added: “There was always a question mark over that anyway. I knew he was going to play a part. The only thing that was brought up was to keep his game time load was to consider putting him out on loan, that’s the only reason why.

“I knew that’d come into play pretty soon and that’s come sooner rather than later. Excited for him.

“We need him scoring tries. He needs to score tries to beat that record and we need him scoring tries. Fingers crossed he gets a couple tomorrow.”

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