Leeds Rhinos picked up what could be another long-term injury as they crashed out of the Betfred Challenge Cup at St Helens.
Hooker Andy Ackers was hurt on the stroke of half-time and is set to undergo tests to reveal the extent of the damage.
Ackers is ever-present so far this term and his loss is a blow for Leeds who face Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves in their next two matches.
Rhinos have already lost star signing Maika Sivo to an anterior cruciate ligament injury which will keep him out of action for the entire season and co-captain Cameron Smith is also on the long-term casualty list following ankle surgery last month.
“He has done his hamstring,” coach Brad Arthur confirmed of Ackers. “I don’t know how bad, he’ll have to have some scans.”
The positive for Leeds was the return of full-back Lachie Miller who came through the full 80 minutes in his first game since last September.
Miller missed the final two matches of 2024 with a hamstring problem and then suffered a calf muscle injury in pre-season.
Arthur said: “To be honest, Lachie has done one session with the team – that was on Wednesday.
“He has done other sessions, but not with the team. We hadn’t planned on playing him 80; when we lost Ackers he said he was going all right and we had to leave him on, but he probably wasn’t ready to play the full-80.”
Friday’s 22-14 defeat was Leeds Rhinos’ second successive Challenge Cup exit to St Helens and they haven’t reached the quarter-finals since lifting the trophy five years ago.
Arthur felt his men were on a par with Saints for much of the match, but admitted inability to play for the full game wrecked their Wembley hopes.
Saints held a four point advantage midway through the tie, but three tries in eight minutes soon after the break left Leeds with too much to do.
Arthur admitted it was a disappointing night, but identified some encouraging signs. He said: “I thought for 65 minutes, we were really good.
“In the first half we started to get some good ascendancy, both teams were going at it physically and it was a real grind.
“There was just a two-minute lapse of concentration – there was a penalty and then they scored a try off a kick and probably got a bit lucky with that.
“We were happy to come in at 6-2 at half-time, but in the second half we gave a penalty away with the ball and turned it over on tackle two, so a couple of individual lapses there.
“On the back of those, there were a couple of individual lapses in defence and it was a 10-minute window that hurt us.
“It felt like we tried hard – good effort, good physicality and we stayed in the fight, but we’ve got to learn to do that for 80 minutes.”
Leeds paid the price for some costly errors and the Rhinos coach insisted: “It’s not a team thing, it’s an individual thing.
“We didn’t make a lot early, then we made them at the wrong times. It’s people trying too hard; they need to be content to do their bit and do their job and let other blokes do their job.”
