Leeds Rhinos are down to the bare bones in their pivotal positions ahead of Sunday’s derby with Castleford Tigers.
Loose-forward Cameron Smith and stand-off Brodie Croft have been ruled out after suffering injuries during last weekend’s win at Salford Red Devils, full-back Lachie Miller remains on the casualty list and coach Brad Arthur admitted he doesn’t know if scrum-halves Matt Frawley and Jack Sinfield will be available.
Smith, Leeds’ co-captain, limped off late in the first half of last week’s game, moments before Croft suffered a concussion which automatically ruled him out of Sunday.
Croft was replaced by Frawley, who had earlier left the field to have eight stitches in a badly cut hand.
Miller has yet to play this year because of a calf muscle problem and Sinfield missed the first two Betfred Super League rounds after suffering a badly bruised foot in the Challenge Cup win over amateurs Wests Warriors.
“We’ve got no idea until Saturday about Frawls or whether Sinny’s right,” Arthur said at his weekly preview press conference today (Thursday).
“It’s footy, we’ve just got to deal with it and respond to it. We can’t really worry about who’s not in the team, we’ve got to worry about who’s in the team, what their job is and try and replicate the professional performance we put in last week.”
Leeds Rhinos coach confirms captain will have surgery
Credit: Leeds Rhinos
Second-rower Morgan Gannon, who missed the whole 2024 season because of concussion, came off the bench into the halves against Salford and is an option for Sunday.
Arthur said: “You can see he’s a guy you can put in any position and he’ll do a job.
“He has trained a bit there today and done a good job. We’ll just have to wait and see where we get to on Saturday and how Frawls is and how Sinny pulls up after doing a bit of running today.
“We are a bit light there, but it’s not an excuse. We’ve still got a good side we’ll be putting out and we have to go and compete really hard and be professional about our approach.”
Smith will undergo surgery on his injured ankle next week and is facing 10 weeks on the sidelines.
“He is disappointed because he did a lot of hard work in pre-season and he has been one of our better players,” Arthur added.
“He has been linking in the middle third of the field and was looking to strike up some good conversations with our middles, but it is a long season – at least it is not season-ending and he will be back in 10 weeks.”
Salford’s Matty Foster was handed three penalty points and a fine after the RFL match review panel charged him with grade B dangerous contact on Smith.
Arthur said: “At the end of the day, Cam is out for probably 10 weeks so we’re not real happy with that part of it.”
Leeds Rhinos co-captain Cameron Smith has been ruled out for 8-10 weeks after suffering a syndesmosis injury to his ankle in Saturday’s win at Salford.
Find out more here https://t.co/P1Y8cnqtqv pic.twitter.com/INklib4bLf— Leeds Rhinos (@leedsrhinos) February 25, 2025
