Adrian Lam on Leigh Leopards’ double injury boost, Robbie Mulhern latest and Derek Beaumont

Adrian Lam expects to welcome Darnell McIntosh and Aaron Pene back into the Leigh Leopards line-up this weekend. Both players have been carrying injuries, but they have been earmarked for a return to action in the Challenge Cup against Batley Bulldogs on Sunday.

McIntosh picked up an injury while away in Lanzarote on the club’s warm weather pre-season training camp and hasn’t seen a minute of competitive action just yet this season. However, after being named in the Leopards’ 21-man squad last week ahead of the trip to Hull FC, the winger looks set to start this weekend at Leigh Sports Village.

Pene, on the other hand, hasn’t been seen since the Cup win over Workington Town on February 7, despite being named in a number of 21-man squads since then. The forward has been struggling with a niggling issue but he’s been passed fit to play this weekend and looks set to be involved as Leigh look to secure their spot in the hat for the quarter-finals.

Lam has also outlined his hopes that Robbie Mulhern could be set to make a return in the next week or two, with the forward struggling with a calf tear, while Frankie Halton and Josh Charnley shouldn’t be too far away either.

“We do have a few injuries and we have had for a couple of weeks with the likes of Mulhern and Charnley and Darnell McIntosh, Frankie Halton, the list goes on,” Lam said in his pre-match press conference. “You look at Gaz O’Brien, HIA, he’s going to miss this week and that will give Ben McNamara an opportunity there.

“We have to try and maintain a standard that keeps us at the top of the table and this is different competition on the weekend with the Challenge Cup, it’s one we’re very fond of and we love. You’ll see that by the way we play on the weekend.”

He added: “Robbie has got a Grade Two tear in his calf so he’ll be out for between four and seven weeks from when we did it and I think this is week three coming up now. Frankie Halton is ahead of time so he’s probably another two or three weeks away and Josh is around the same time as Robbie.

“Darnell McIntosh and Aaron Pene will probably come into the 17 this week which I’m excited about.”

Leigh Leopards owner Derek Beaumont has been in the news this week after seeing the resolutions both he and Leeds Rhinos Gary Hetherington put forward accepted by the RFL. As such, the pair have moved quickly to appoint Nigel Wood as the chair of a strategic review panel, with Wood also becoming the interim chair of the RFL.

Asked if he had spoken to Beaumont about his plans and whether he had an opinion, Lam added: “No, not really. My role here is to make sure we perform to our best every week and we get success as a club, a team and a town.

“We’re doing that at our level and he’s doing his thing at the top there. Obviously he’s very passionate about that, I’m sure all the owners are, they want the best for the game and no doubt heading in the right direction.”