Castleford v Hull FC: 21-man squads, injury update and TV details

Castleford and Hull FC have both announced their 21-man squads for Thursday night’s round nine clash at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle (KO 7:45pm).

The Tigers come into the game riding the high of their Challenge Cup semi-final victory over Warrington last week, which saw them book their place at Wembley for the first time since 2014.

In contrast, Hull suffered a 33-18 defeat in their hard-fought semi-final against St Helens, meaning they’ve now won just one of their last four games in all competitions.

The game will be available to watch live on Sky Sports Action and the Sky Sports YouTube channel, with coverage starting from 7:00pm.

Castleford Tigers

After last week’s triumph, Daryl Powell makes five changes to his squad, with Niall Evalds, Jake Trueman, Cheyse Blair, Gareth O’Brien and Daniel Smith dropping out. George Griffin returns from suspension, while Danny Richardson, Lewis Bienek, Lewis Peachey and Brad Graham are also included. Greg Eden, Grant Millington (knee) and Sosaia Feki (achilles) remain unavailable.

21-man squad: 2 Derrell Olpherts, 3 Peter Mata’utia, 4 Michael Shenton, 7 Danny Richardson, 8 Liam Watts, 9 Paul McShane, 11 Oliver Holmes, 13 Adam Milner, 14 Nathan Massey, 15 George Griffin, 17 Alex Foster, 18 Jacques O’Neill, 19 Tyla Hepi, 20 James Clare, 21 Jesse Sene-Lefao, 24 Suaia Matagi, 25 Jordan Turner, 26 Lewis Bienek, 27 Lewis Peachey, 28 Brad Martin, 30 Brad Graham.

Hull FC

There’s one change for the Black and Whites as Josh Griffin drops out following an achilles tear last week, while he has also been suspended for two games. He is replaced by Mitieli Vulikijapani, who is recalled from a loan spell at Bradford. There’s still no Joe Cator (calf), Scott Taylor (foot), Masi Matongo (knee) or Jamie Shaul (ACL), while youngsters Jude Ferreira and Harvey Barron are also unavailable with respective shoulder and leg problems.

21-man squad: 1 Jake Connor, 2 Bureta Faraimo, 3 Carlos Tuimavave, 5 Mahe Fonua, 6 Josh Reynolds, 7 Marc Sneyd, 9 Danny Houghton, 10 Chris Satae, 11 Andre Savelio, 12 Manu Ma’u, 13 Ligi Sao, 14 Jordan Johnstone, 16 Jordan Lane, 17 Brad Fash, 19 Ben McNamara, 20 Jack Brown, 21 Adam Swift, 22 Josh Bowden, 23 Connor Wynne, 24 Cameron Scott, 27 Mitieli Vulikijapani.