Castleford Tigers: Fresh injuries as key player sidelined for five weeks

Castleford Tigers head coach Craig Lingard has revealed the honest conversations that he’d had with full-back Luke Hooley that had sparked a form revival prior to his untimely injury.

Lingard has confirmed that Hooley will be sidelined for at least a month and possibly even longer after a shoulder injury that the former Leeds Rhinos man has incurred.

It means that Hooley won’t face his former side on Thursday when Castleford Tigers welcome the Rhinos to Wheldon Road in the first game of Super League’s Rivals Round.

Speaking to the media, Lingard revealed: “We’re still waiting on the result of a scan from Luke. We’re not 100% sure what that is. It might be injuries similar to what Rowan Milnes had in the friendlies that kept him out for four or five weeks.

“We’re hoping it’s not massively long-term, but we don’t think it’ll be a week or two. It’s more likely, I would imagine, to be around about a month return on that. But like I said, we’re still waiting on the return of the scan for that one.”

He then confirmed it was in fact a shoulder injury that came about unfortunately: “He caught a bit of a high tackle, which I don’t think played a great deal part in the injury, but as he hit the ground, it hit his shoulder on the ground and it’s more of an impact injury on the shoulder rather than anything from the actual tackle itself.

“We’re just waiting on the results of the scan from that. We’re sort of estimating around about a month to five weeks. Without looking at the scan results, hopefully, it comes back a little bit sooner, but we’re sort of prepping for it to be around about a month.

“It gave him a lift” – Competition for places pushing Castleford Tigers

It’s a big blow for Castleford and for Hooley in particular who will have been very keen to take the field against his former club after his year-long stint at Headingley last year didn’t see the talented full-back show his best assets at times.

The move to Castleford has seen him reunite with his former Batley Bulldogs coach Craig Lingard though and Lingard has now revealed the honest conversations that he has had with Hooley that had seen the 25-year-old turn a corner prior to his injury.

Hooley started the first four games of the season but found himself benched in these past two with centre Jack Broadbent dropping into the full-back role, something that has spurred the ex-Batley man on according to Lingard.

Lingard explained: “He’s come under a bit of pressure himself in the squad over the last few weeks and Jack Broadbent started the last couple of games and we’ve seen a bit of a change in Luke with his intensity in training.

“I’ve had a chat with Luke and he’s sort of admitted himself that his performances weren’t to the standard that he wanted them to be at.

“Having that competition for places with Broadbent dropping into that full-back role, it gave him a little bit of a lift as well. He was certainly training now to get back in that 17, and it’s disappointing for Luke that he’s picked up this injury.”

More new signings hit with setbacks

Lingard also confirmed that Hooley wasn’t the only recruit struggling with an injury issue as he revealed that Rowan Milnes could be set for a spell out with the former Hull KR man having picked up an injury in the win over Batley.

Milnes missed the early rounds of the season following a shoulder injury that he copped during the pre-season clashes but the half has suffered yet more bad luck with a hamstring tweak now.

“Rowan tweaked his hamstring in the game against Batley,” Lingard explained.

“He did it in the first half, so we had a look at him at half-time, he went out at half-time and kept it moving, he said he was fine, but he’s just pulled up a little bit weak after that game, so there’s no point risking him.

“We had Danny Richardson who was the 18th man on that game, so Danny will come in for Rowan and we’ll just have to look after Rowan to make sure there’s no long-term damage to him.”

Another new signing that fans of Castleford Tigers won’t have seen as much of as they’d have liked to is Sylvester Namo and Lingard has now admitted that he got it wrong when playing the PNG man against Huddersfield, instead explaining that he should have held him back.

In a goal to get back to match fitness, Namo had played for the reserves but again ended the game with a knock, Lingard revealed: “He picked up a bit of a knee injury playing for the reserves. Again, it shouldn’t be anything too significant, maybe a week or two, but nothing too significant with Sylvester.

“He’s coming back from an ACL, so he missed nine, ten months of last season. So, we want to make sure that his return is staged and right for him and avoid any sort of issue that might knock his strength down.

“We don’t want to rush him too soon. Looking in hindsight, we rushed him back a little bit too soon for the Huddersfield game, and it was way, way too soon for him to be playing in that game. I held my hand up on that one.”