Leeds Rhinos star offers injury update revealing he’ll miss multiple games

It wasn’t a good night at the office for Leeds Rhinos on Friday with their heavy loss to Warrington Wolves compounded by injuries to two of their homegrown talents and one of those has now provided an update.

The Rhinos lost 34-8 with Warrington running in three tries on either side of the break in response to early scores from the home team in each half, but more concerning than the loss were the injuries to both Tom Holroyd and Ash Handley.

Both men left the field within the first twenty minutes with Rohan Smith confirming that they both went to the hospital for treatment with Holroyd having failed a Head Injury Assessment and Handley having a rib issue after heavy contact from George Williams.

With Holroyd failing his HIA he will enter the return-to-play protocol but with Leeds out of the Challenge Cup and therefore not playing on the weekend, it’s unlikely that the prop will miss any games.

The same can’t be said for Handley with the in-form winger providing an update via the Rhinos’ YouTube channel.

Asked how he was feeling, he responded: “I’m a bit sore. I spent a good few hours in A&E on Friday but it’s settled down over the last couple of days and I’m hoping that continues and we’ll see how I go.”

He continued, revealing the severity of the injury: “I couldn’t breathe really. I’m surprised I could walk off the field. I was struggling, I’d got a knock the week before against Cas and then I felt a bit of a pop on Friday so it was tough.

“I think it’s cartilage in my rib, no break on my bones which is good. I don’t know how long it’s going to take, I’m just taking it day by day.”

It’s somewhat of a surprise that the England international hasn’t broken a rib given the absolute belter of a tackle that England skipper George Williams hit him with that left Handley prone for a period of time.

Prior to his injury, Handley had almost scored yet another incredible length-of-the-field try with Matty Ashton’s chase-down tackle being as good as a try, the Warrington winger taking Handley down metres from the line before being helped by teammates to put the winger in touch.

It does seem that we won’t be witnessing Handley tear down the wing again any time soon though as he provided a timeline for his return that doesn’t make for good reading for Leeds Rhinos’ fans.

How long will Leeds Rhinos’ star Ash Handley be out for?

One thing Rhinos fans can take a positive is that Handley has confirmed that he’s a quick healer, but on the flip side of that, he’s revealed that he still isn’t back to walking properly.

He explained: “I’m normally a quick healer but we’ll just have to see how I feel and try and get back walking properly first and then go from there.

“I’m taking confidence in how much it’s settled down. I got my socks on this morning on my own which is a plus, like I say though I want to get back being able to walk properly and do the day-to-day things first.”

Like Holroyd will be, Handley is also glad there’s no game this week meaning that the game time he does miss is slightly less, but he has forecast that he will be missing a couple.

He said: “I’m pretty glad we’ve got a week off this week so I’m not missing too many games. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks time, I’ll be back running and see where we go from there.

“I had the game on my phone in the ambulance watching it on the way to the hospital. It was a tough loss. I thought we could do a job on them but we lost me and Tom (HIA), which wasn’t great and we lost our way a little bit.”