Ian Watson provides injury update following crucial win that keeps Huddersfield Giants’ playoff hopes alive

Huddersfield Giants made it three wins in a row last night, the first time they’ve managed that feat all season, as their aim to emulate Leeds Rhinos of 2022 and make a late playoff charge continues.

They were pitted against ninth placed Hull FC in a game that seemed do or die for the Giants and in what Ian Watson described as a “gritty” game, it was the Giants who came out on top.

The opening ten minutes were incredibly nervy and someone needed to take control of the game with that someone being former FC man Jake Connor, whose booming 40/20 kick set up the territory before the full-back then spread it wide for Jermaine McGillvary to notch the 249th try of his career.

Hull FC hit back through Adam Swift and Brad Fash before Tui Lolohea got the jump on Davy Litten after a kick on second tackle from Olly Russell.

The scores remained level until late on when Chris McQueen broke the line and put the Giants in front with an Olly Russell drop goal sealing the victory minutes later.

With a game in hand the Giants are now two points shy of Hull FC, and just four points from the playoffs at present, with a settled spine being key to their recent form however that could be set to change.

Ian Watson addressed the press afterwards detailing any injuries his side picked up and two senior players could be set to miss out.

“Jermaine looks like he’s done his hamstring which isn’t great,” Watson explained.

“Now, Jez is normally pretty good because of his experience at being able to catch it. If he feels something, he catches it. We’re not sure where that is this time, so we’re unsure.

“Luke Yates, his ankle just looks pretty swollen. At one point, there was a head knock straight away because of the collision, so doctors have gone running out there, but actually when they got there, it was his ankle that’s just massively blown up. So, we’ll have to see where that gets us at.”

Despite time out in the cold earlier in the season McGillvary has forced his way back into the side whilst captain Luke Yates is a mainstay for the Giants, any potential time on the sideline for either could be brutal given the importance of the remaining eight games.

Watson explained again how the veteran McGillvary is generally aware of his injuries, indicating the winger being massaged after his try in an effort to remain on the field.

“Yeah, I think he was just aware of it because obviously he’d sent a message to the sideline saying he felt a little bit tired, but we was in a little bit of a flow there was in the arm wrestle , so we just told him to concentrate on his D whilst we could kind of assess the physios.

“Then the next minute then he’s just saying it’s no good so then he came off from there, so hopefully we’ve caught it and hopefully it’s not as bad as what we think because that’s what we’ve been doing really really well Jez so we’ll see where that goes.”

Upon being asked about top six ambitions, Watson was eager to shut them down.

“That’s great we’re just focusing week by week at the moment we said it a few weeks back now but we just what we’ve got to do is look at every single game that we’re coming up to.

“It was about taking one game at a time and then see where that takes us. It will he no different next week for Castleford, we’ve just got to regroup after that game, refocus and go again.”