Huddersfield Giants head coach Luke Robinson has confirmed the club have suffered even more injury woes including to a star player.
The Giants are perhaps going through one of the worst injury runs in Super League history but it’s showing no sign of letting up with Huddersfield boss Robinson admitting that “when it rains, it pours”.
That was his glum assessment after confirming that playmaker Tui Lolohea is the latest name to join the long-term injured list with the Tongan suffering a calf injury that could rule him out for up to three months.
Lolohea had limped off against Hull KR and despite initial thoughts being that it was simply a tight calf, scans highlighted a far bigger problem meaning that he joins the likes of Adam Clune and Zac Woolford as those key overseas spine players on the injury list.
Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s game against Catalans Dragons, Robinson spoke on the injury plague his side have suffered, confirming that the club have had “no luck”.
Huddersfield Giants suffer another major injury
Robinson confirmed: “We’ve had no luck so it looks like Harry Rushton got involved in a really awkward tackle which affected both his knee and his ankle so it looks like he’s gonna be missing for the next six weeks.
“Matty English has been struggling with his shoulder but he picked up an Achilles tendon problem that’s going to rule him out for a minimum of two to four weeks.”
With those two forwards confirmed as joining the injury list, Robinson confirmed Lolohea’s injury, stating: “Tui Lolohea limped off the game and by the end of the game and said he had tightened his calf and we thought that’s just what it was. After the scan results came back he spoke to the specialist and he looks like he’s been out for 8-12 weeks which is unbelievable.”
Making matters worse is the fact George King’s debut has been delayed, with Robinson adding: “We’ve been really looking forward to George King coming back after his horrific freak accident at the beginning of the year, but he has pulled his calf as well and it looks like he’s going to be out for four to six weeks.
“If it doesn’t rain, it pours. We need to drill down and work out what’s going on because the injury, the injury, the list this year has been horrific, to say the least. Horrific.”
Previewing what sort of squad he could name for Sunday’s game, Robinson noted: “Oliver Wilson’s obviously still banned. We’ve got (Bill) Leyland in the squad who is raring to go. We’ve got (Liam) Sutcliffe potentially who’ll be back in training today, so Sutcliffe looks like he might potentially make a return. Aidan McGowan didn’t play in the last and we’ve got a couple of other young lads that are chomping at the bit waiting to get in.”
Huddersfield exploring all markets in bid to bolster team
Another frustrating element to this injury crisis has been Huddersfield’s inability to sign players with seemingly just Hull KR willing to loan the Giants any players so far, with Danny Richardson joining earlier in the season before Bill Leyland signed this week on a short-term deal.
Owner Ken Davy explained at a fan event that the club had been knocked back on 12 different approaches, something Robinson described as “very, very, very, very frustrating”.
On that, he said: “We’ve got a lot of good young kids in the Giants. We’ve got a really good pathway at the Giants. The kids who probably could have come into those positions are probably just not ready yet.
“I’ve contemplated a few times but when you’re in a losing and things aren’t going your way it’s very, very difficult. So, we’ve obviously been looking in the market and we’ve made contact over with teams in the NRL, with their feeder clubs, the NRL clubs themselves and Super League.
“There’s been a fair few injuries throughout Super League themselves so there’s been a lot of teams that are unwilling to let anyone go because they’re struggling themselves to make sure that they have not only the 1 and 2 ready to go but even the 3rd and 4th in line, they’re a little bit unwilling to let them go because it affects them.”
They have been able to bring in Bill Leyland though with Robinson speaking on the Hull KR youngster: “When an opportunity came up for Bill to come over this way, we jumped at the chance to bring somebody in and bolster that position. Obviously, we’re light in that position anyway and if we lost anybody else we’d be in a lot of trouble.
“I think everybody’s aware that we haven’t played with 1-9-7-6 all year together, ever. Seven and six have not even trained one minute together yet so we’ve been very light in the spine area.”
