Castleford Tigers head coach Craig Lingard has confirmed that the club did look into signing a player who has just penned a deal with a rival club as he offered a recruitment and an injury update.
Lingard’s side are looking to make it four wins in a row following their victory over Catalans Dragons last week but playoff hopefuls Salford Red Devils stand in their way tomorrow.
Paul Rowley’s side won the first encounter this season at home before Castleford Tigers won their first game of the season when defeating the Red Devils in Round Seven as Innes Senior ran riot and scored four tries.
Ahead of the game tomorrow, Craig Lingard has spoken to the media and confirmed that his side will be without one of their senior players as he offered an update on Liam Watts.
Watts saw his knee heavily strapped in the win against Catalans Dragons and wasn’t named in the club’s 21-man squad as one of two changes. Lingard has now offered an update on his senior prop.
Castleford Tigers boss confirms injury status of prop
Credit: Imago Images
Asked about Watts, Lingard told BBC West Yorkshire Sport: “We’re hoping it’s not too bad, he’s done a bit of running on the field today, I’d probably say he’s at about 75-80% fit, but he’s not trained all week with the boys.
“He’s just done a little bit of rehab stuff and then, like I said, gone out on the field this morning and done a little bit of running.
“We’re not expecting it to be a massive injury, we’re hoping he’s going to be back available next week, but we’ll assess that as next week progresses and we’ll see how we go this week as well.”
He was also asked about Leigh Leopards’ recent signing Bailey Hodgson with the 21-year-old having made his Super League debut as a Castleford Tigers player.
Lingard admitted: “We did look at him behind the scenes as a name that popped up, but like I say, we’re well covered in that full-back position.
“We’ve got Tex Hoy, we’ve got Luke Hooley, we’ve got Fletcher Rooney who’s coming through as well, so we’ve got to make sure that any players that we bring in, it’s not going to stifle the development of any of these young players, who we have got real high hopes for that are coming through the Castleford system, so it wasn’t really something that we considered long-term.”
