Daryl Powell identifies weak link in Leeds side as he welcomes back stars from injuries

Daryl Powell will welcome back a number of stars for the visit of Leeds, although Niall Evalds and Adam Milner will not be taking part.

“Niall missed last week, he pulled up sore in the captain’s run so hopefully he’ll be ok,” Powell said.

“The way injuries are going for us, I’ll do a bit of praying for us this week.

“Adz (Adam Milner) has got an ankle problem, he came off early last week with his ankle and rolled it, but I think he will be ok.”

That being said, Powell will welcome back three key players.

“We’ve been a little bit down on troops, we had ten players missing last week.

“We worked really hard again Warrington, but it got away from us.

“To get Wattsy back is massive; he was starting to get his form back when he was suspended so that’s important for us.

“Cheyse Blair will be back and Greg Eden too, so we’ve got a few players back and I’m looking forward to it.

“Jacques is back in and it’s good to see him; he was close last week.

“He’s had a bit of time on the sidelines and he’s built up a reputation last year with the way he played so it’s a good opportunity for him to get out there and get going again.”

With Leeds coming up on Friday and then a semi-final clash against Warrington the week after, Powell is trying to get his players focused on this week’s game first.

“We’ve got a couple of big weeks, but Leeds will be a tough challenge – their starting pack is pretty fearsome so our boys need to be on their game.

“Around semi-finals you are always mindful of the week after, but the boys have trained well and looking forward to the Leeds challenge.

“We need to leave that semi-final until next week – we need to build form and confidence first.

“Our team has got thrown around so much that we haven’t had any consistency in selection, but I think we can get that over the next couple of weeks

“I don’t think we’ve really played that well this year, we’ve been rocked by injuries and some are just unavoidable contact injuries in games.

“We’re having to work our way through that, but we just have to focus on our performances and get some individual players putting in some good performances.

“It’s one game at a time and we need some form.”

The Castleford head coach has, however, identified two weak links in the Leeds side.

“Konrad Hurrell conceded some tries on his inside shoulder so he will have to look at this week and Luke Gale defends on the other flank so we want to cause trouble for both sides.”