Bad Zak Hardaker news

Former Leeds Rhinos and Wigan Warriors star Zak Hardaker is perhaps a key for Leigh Leopards if they want to get to Old Trafford.

This is because he has played in five Grand Finals for two different clubs. In 2011, he scored against St Helens as Leeds won the Super League title from fifth.

A year later, he was winning the Grand Final again with Leeds before becoming a treble winner in 2015.

In 2017, he guided Castleford Tigers to Old Trafford but didn’t play in the decider. He returned to the Grand Final with Wigan Warriors and played at Old Trafford last year back at Leeds Rhinos.

But he might now miss out on the Grand Final in 2023 through injury which surely works against the Leopards.

They have three injury worries as Adrian Lam spoke on John Asiata, Frankie Halton and Hardaker.

He said on YouTube: “Yeah, we’ll probably name him in the squad there. The situation hasn’t changed much from last week, you know, we’re going to give him every part to be right for this week. If he plays, he plays. If not, we’ll just get on with it and move on with it.

“We’ve been quite fortunate this year with minimal injuries but Zak Hardaker gets a scan tomorrow that we’ve got to just make sure we see how that sits.

“Frankie Halton’s in the same position as Asiata, so it’s another one where we don’t have a full squad leading into the game, but regardless of what happens, whoever comes in to fill in those spots for those boys will do the job.

“He’s had a hamstring strain as well, so him and Asiata got the hamstring strain and Zak Hardaker has got the hand.

“Yeah, very similar squad to last week apart from that there’s some doubt over Asiata with a hamstring strain. There’s some doubt over Frankie Halton with a hamstring strain and also over Zak Hardaker with the broken hand.

“I think the rest of the squad is the same as last week. So, not too much to change.”

“Well we’ve got a scan on Zak’s hand to see at what level it’s at, from that we can make a decision moving forward. It could be for the rest of the season yet, we’re not sure about that.

“But we’re going to give him every opportunity. He can probably play with it but whether it’s a risk to that for the future for him then we’ve got to make a tough decision on that probably once we get the skin sorted.”