Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur has offered an early injury update on Lachie Miller, after the star full-back left the field six minutes into tonight’s game against Wigan Warriors.
Miller lasted just six minutes before limping off the Headingley turf, with the Aussie pulling up without any players around him, something that is never a good sign.
At half-time it was suspected that he had suffered a hamstring injury, and Arthur revealed that Miller may have a tear and will be monitored heading into the finals.
“He’s not great,” the head coach said, dejected after his side’s 40-8 defeat. “He’s not great. He’ll go for scans and everything, but I don’t think it’s just a strain on his joints and everything.
“We’ll have to wait and see, he’ll have scans to confirm that… He said he was a bit tight at times, we’ll have to look into it.”
Miller actually played with a fractured eye socket, Arthur confirmed. “He’ll get through this week [Hull FC, and then he has the next week off.”
As a result of the injury, it forced a reshuffle across the whole side, with back rower Chris Hankinson moving to full-back, and bench player Zak Lloyd entering the fray earlier than expected.
Hankinson had a shaky start, with some poor defence allowing Adam Keighran in for the first of his three tries, before the speed of Jai Field left him for dead in the final minutes of the contest.
Lloyd, meanwhile, left the field with a rib injury and is a doubt for next week’s trip to Hull FC. However, the boss expects James McDonnell, Maika Sivo and Keenan Palasia to all return.
Leeds Rhinos boss assesses Wigan Warriors defeat
Commenting on tonight’s 40-8 defeat, Arthur said: “We’re disappointed. We didn’t put our best foot forward tonight. It was a big occasion for the club. Not through effort, but we just let ourselves down, we let the club down tonight.
“We just spoke to the boys then, it’s certainly not over. We’re just going to have to dust ourselves off and we’ve got a big game next week, and we need to regain some form.”
A number of calls went against his side this evening, leaving the Rhinos faithful lost for words at times, but Arthur refused to use the match officials as an excuse.
“I need to go back and have a look at them all first before I make a comment. I thought there were a couple of tough ones.
“But again, I thought we need to be more resilient. You can’t just give away a penalty, and then we can’t concede straight away four or five tackles later, so we need to look at that.”
