“It’s not solely in our control” – Leigh Leopards could face hurdle replacing injured star

Leigh Leopards suffered a brutal blow just seven minutes into the 2024 season when star hooker Edwin Ipape went down injured and it has now been confirmed that the Papua New Guinea international has ruptured his MCL.

Ipape was crucial to Leigh’s success in 2023 with the hooker taking Super League by storm and earning Dream Team honours, however, the club will now likely be without him for at least six weeks.

The Leopards have acted quickly to get cover for Ipape with Brad Dwyer arriving on a two-week loan deal from Warrington Wolves, the ex-Hull FC man behind both Danny Walker and Sam Powell in the pecking order at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Dwyer could debut this Friday when Leigh Leopards face a St Helens side that has conceded just four points in two games, but the club may need Dwyer for longer than that with Adrian Lam confirming the extent of Ipape’s injury.

Speaking on Leigh Leopard’s YouTube channel at his presser, Lam said: “Edwin’s ruptured his MCL ligament down the outside so he’s walking on it now and there’s not much pain there.

“It’s one of those ones where it’s you know you just got to get on with it and rest it for a minimum of four weeks before you can start training again. So he’ll be at between six and eight weeks probably closer to eight weeks.”

Lam then spoke on the attributes that Dwyer would bring to the club in the absence of Ipape, revealing why they felt the need to head to market as opposed to promoting from within.

“We’ve we’ve bought Brad Dwyer in on loan from Warrington for two weeks,” Lam stated, adding on: “I think we could have gone with someone locally here as in within the squad but I felt that it was a really good opportunity for Brad to come over and play his trade with us.”

“We’ll probably want to extend Brad” – Leigh Leopards keen to keep Dwyer

Because of the nature of Ipape’s injury and the fact it’s set to sideline him for at least six weeks there had been confusion around why it was just a two-week loan deal, something Lam explained as being a standard practice and protection for Warrington should injuries befall Danny Walker or Sam Powell.

Lam stated: “You’ve got to negotiate those sort of loans to make it suit both clubs. I think on a two-week callback just gives Warrington the option of pulling back if anything happens there.

“Obviously for us, if it works with Brad in the next two weeks, we’ll probably want to extend that as we go, but that’s not solely in our control.”

Speaking more on the type of player that Dywer is and how he compared to Ipape, Lam revealed that he had been an admirer of the ex-Rhinos man for some time, confirming that he had impressed against Lam’s Wigan side previously.

“I’m a fan of Brad’s and I know what he’s like as a person, as a player, and I think he can do a really good job for us,” Lam explained.

“Tat’s the immediate change up with our team and that just adds that other little bit of X-factor to us, but it also will take a little bit of time to get combinations with him.

“They’re both different sorts of players, but very hungry attacking players. Also as great as Edwin is an attacker, he’s a very aggressive front-line defender. Brad brings that smarts with him, he’s been around Super League for a very long time and he’s creative around that nine area. So in that sense, they’re very similar.

“Brad plays a lot of eyes-up rugby and he’s got a good 7 and 6 around him and a 1 and 13 that are very clever as well. Hopefully he can slip straight into that system the way that Edwin was playing. I’ve got no doubts that he will.”

Ipape was one of the Leigh Leopards players reportedly linked with interest from the NRL, along with captain John Asiata and overnight reports have once again linked the loose forward with an NRL return.