Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson has provided an injury update on two more stars after his side’s 50-4 loss to Hull KR.
The winless Giants are having an awful time of it so far this season, sitting at the foot of Super League and missing a host of their star players with Luke Robinson labelling it as the “Huddersfield Giants curse”.
That was on show last week when new recruit Niall Evalds suffered a broken foot on debut in the first half against Salford Red Devils and Robinson has now confirmed that a former Warrington Wolves man the club had brought in on trial has suffered a similar fate.
Huddersfield Giants lose triallist to five-week injury
Asked post-match about the spate of injuries, he said: “I’ve never experienced it in my career. We’ve had tricky patches but never had so many key individuals out.”
He then announced that the club had brought in former Warrington Wolves hooker Aidan Doolan on trial, given star man Zac Woolford is out for an extended period, only for Doolan to suffer a four to five week injury.
“What probably sums it up for us is that we brought in Aidan Doolan, a young hooker on a trial period, we wanted to see how he fitted in,” Robinson confirmed.
“He was training with us for a week and then he broke the metacarpal in his finger. We wanted to have a look at him this week but unfortunately he’s got the Huddersfield Giants curse.
“We’ve had a look at him, we were really looking forward to seeing him play today as the reserves played before our game. We wanted to see if he could add value to the squad, he seems like a really good kid, he’s shown good touches and he’s out four to five weeks now. It’s nuts.”
That injury means the Giants will be playing with Ashton Golding and Thomas Deakin as their only recognised hookers going forward, whilst other spine positions are also short due to injuries for Adam Clune, Kieran Rush and Niall Evalds.
Huddersfield injury update provided as stars exit against Hull KR
Those injuries aren’t an excuse though, Robinson insists, with the head coach claiming that the Giants must “find a way” to get in the win column, particularly given how long some of those players will be out for.
“We don’t get a lot of them back (soon),” Robinson explained.
“I think there’s a bit of light on the horizon with Joe Greenwood and Kingy (George King) but (Zac) Woolford, Cluney (Adam Clune), obviously Niall (Evalds) is out for a long time, and Rushy (Kieran Rush) are all out for a bit longer so we’ve got to find a way of managing games and scrapping two points.
“I thought the effort was great in the first half. I don’t think it was a lack of effort, I think it was a lack of smarts and skill.”
Two fresh injury concerns saw Adam Swift and Tui Lolohea leave the field whilst George Flanagan Jr also did but would return late on.
On his star duo, Robinson said: “Swifty, it was his head so we’ll get a little bit of a tell on him but he’s been struggling with his groins as well so there was a little bit of that going on,
“He offers us threat on the edge so he’s vital for us so we need to wrap him in cotton wool but he’s had a few things going on with his hamstring, his groin and his head.
“Tui Lolohea is a calf. Over the last couple of weeks he’s just had a tightening of the calf so at this stage, we’re just hoping it’s something similar. Fingers crossed.”
