Castleford Tigers have moved to give injury updates on three players who won’t be involved in this week’s friendly with St Helens.
The Tigers will travel to Merseyside for what will be their second and final pre-season game before they face either Doncaster or Newcastle Thunder in the third round of the Challenge Cup.
As such, head coach Ryan Carr will be keen to see his side turn in a strong performance at the BrewDog Stadium and he has named what can be considered to be his strongest available side.
However, eagle-eyed supporters spotted that Zac Cini was not included in this weekend’s squad when it was named earlier this week and the club have now moved to clear up his injury situation.
Cini picked up a hamstring injury during pre-season and he is yet to fully overcome that. However, the issue isn’t expected to rule him out for too long with the Tigers outlining their hope that the centre will be fit enough to feature against Toulouse Olympique in round two of Super League later next month.
Of course that means he will miss the season opener and the third round of the Cup, and for this week at the very least, he is joined on the sidelines by new signing Semi Valemei.
The winger has picked up a hamstring strain this week and won’t be involved at St Helens. Notably, though, the club have not cleared up whether he will be fit enough to play once the competitive action gets underway.
Carr will be hoping he is, though, with Valemei making up part of what is an almost entirely new back line at Wheldon Road.
Cain Robb won’t be involved either this weekend and that’s due to the ankle surgery he had in December.
The Tigers completed the signings of Krystian Mapapalangi on Thursday evening but he won’t be available to play until the third round of the Cup, which takes place in the opening weekend of February.
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