Leeds Rhinos will have to await a specialist’s opinion before deciding whether to send star signing Paul Momirovski under the knife after the NRL recruit suffered another ankle injury.
Momirovski arrived at the Headingley club from Sydney Roosters ahead of the season and whilst his talent is clear for all to see his Leeds Rhinos career so far has been stunted with the centre playing through injury.
The centre previously suffered an ankle injury of which he was deemed fully recovered to start against Hull FC but he had to be withdrawn at the 50-minute mark with teenager Alfie Edgell replacing him.
Rohan Smith has since provided an update on the status of the centre during his press duties.
Leeds Rhinos centre re-injures ankle
Credit: Imago Images
It wasn’t a brilliant win for Leeds Rhinos over Hull FC with many expecting Rohan Smith’s side to put a huge score on the Super League strugglers but all wins are worth two points, however, they’re certainly better when you come through injury-free.
That wasn’t the case for the Rhinos and Rohan Smith told BBC Radio Leeds that Momirovski’s injury is “more severe” than the previous one that saw him miss Round Five and have to leave the field against Huddersfield Giants in Round Eight.
“He had an MRI yesterday on a syndesmosis injury,” Smith explained.
“It’s a little bit more severe than the one he had a month or so ago that sort of healed quite quickly.
“He’s going to see a specialist this week sometime to get a sort of time frame on it. We’re hoping that it won’t involve surgery but at this stage we’re not 100% sure.”
The Australian also confirmed that unfortunately, it is the same ankle as the previous issue, something that Momirovski had managed to play through for the most part.
“It’s the same ankle. It’s definitely more serious than the injury that he had. He’d managed that quite well to the point where he had no issue until he got it caught in an awkward position when we made that break down the right side.
“So yeah it’s quite sore at the moment. It’s more serious than last time, but to learn the extent of it we’ll wait and see what the specialist says.”
With Momirovski looking set to miss games it creates a big problem for the Rhinos who are already missing both Ash Handley (Rib), Dabid Fusitu’a (Knee) and Harry Newman (Back) from their back-line.
Luis Roberts has had to fill in on the wing for the majority of the season given Fusitu’a’s injury whilst Rhyse Martin has once again been forced into the centres.
One positive for the Rhinos is that they look to have unearthed a talent in Riley Lumb who scored a brace on debut and now could be set for an extended run in the team due to the club’s injury crisis in the three-quarter line.
