Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur has given an update on the health of Max Simpson after he was stretchered off on Saturday afternoon. Simpson was making his first appearance in the Rhinos line-up in over three years after struggling with a string of serious of injuries.
He fared well, too, playing his part in a 34-0 win for the Rhinos, which took them up to third in the table and level on points with second placed Wigan Warriors. However, his afternoon came to an abrupt halt when a nasty collision left him on the deck and requiring medical attention.
With his neck being the issue, the Rhinos medical team took no risks and after several minutes of treating him on the field, Simpson was stretched off the pitch and down the tunnel at the MKM Stadium.
Arthur was asked for an update on the 21-year-old when he sat down in front of the press and the head coach issued some positive news.
“I’m not 100 per cent sure but they’re pretty confident that it’s all precautionary at the moment,” Arthur told the press. “Fingers crossed.
“He’s gone to get checked now and he’s in good spirits, he’s just a bit tight. It was a pretty nasty collision but as you’d expect, they’ll take it real cautious with him.
“It’s unfortunate. Look, there’s every possibility that he’s fine and good to go. The whole game looks after those neck injuries and takes it very serious and sometimes it can look worse than it actually is.”
Leeds were able to welcome back Mikolaj Oledzki and Cooper Jenkins but they were without Keenan Palasia, with the forward dropping out of the fold on the morning of the game with a knee injury.
“It was this morning, 10am we made that late change,” Arthur added. “He knew about it after training yesterday, he just said his knee was a bit grumbly from last week. He trained alright Wednesday and Friday but something stirred it up and we have a short turnaround so we’ll see what happens there.”
Leeds Rhinos boss hails performance against Hull FC
Even with all that adversity, though, Leeds blew the Black and Whites away, scoring six tries in East Yorkshire. Ryan Hall, Kallum Watkins, Jake Connor, Morgan Gannon, Brodie Croft and James McDonnell all got over on the day and Arthur was pleased with what he saw from his side.
“We’re really good at our responses at the minute around any little bit of adversity and getting on with the job,” the Rhinos boss said on the performance. “I thought our first 10-15 minutes were a bit flat, not lethargic but we didn’t have the same energy levels that we’ve been displaying.
“Credit to the boys they showed plenty of character and they just hung in there and once we got the try, they found a bit of energy from it. That’s what good teams need to do. You’re not always going to be at your best, it’s a long season and we’ve been working pretty hard. We had three sessions this week which was working them hard for this stage of the year but it’s good for our mindset and mentality.
“We just needed that spark and energy and once we had that, there’s a lot of belief there and we have the ability to put some back to back tries on pretty quickly which can help in the context of the game, you can give yourself a bit of breathing space quite quickly.”
