Adrian Lam is sweating on the fitness of star full-back David Armstrong heading into this week’s fixture with Hull FC. Armstrong missed Leigh Leopards’ Super League win over Catalans Dragons last week through illness and hasn’t trained since.
The Australian starred for the Leopards over the opening two rounds of the Super League season and he touched down for his first try in the Northern Hemisphere in the win over Huddersfield Giants. An impressive performance from Bailey Hodgson ensured he wasn’t missed against Catalans, though, which will have come as a relief to Lam, who saw his side maintain their 100 per cent record.
However, Armstrong continues to struggle with the effects of the illness and as it stands, the Leigh head coach doesn’t know whether he will be fit to take on the Black and Whites at the MKM Stadium.
“Armstrong hasn’t trained with us this week,” Lam said in his pre-match press conference. “We’ll give him right up until kick-off to see whether he’s fit or not.
“It’s just illness, it’s diarrhoea and vomiting and losing weight really. It’s gone through the club, there’s probably four or five players that have had it over the last three weeks.
“We’re trying to manage that issue as well and I assume a lot of clubs have had a similar issue because of the bug that’s going around. Today he’s up and about and he’s back into return to training stuff so he has a chance.”
Leigh’s win over Catalans came at a price, unfortunately, with Robbie Mulhern and Alec Tuitavake being among those to pick up issues, while hat-trick hero Umyla Hanley tweaked his knee. Tuitavake and Hanley are included in the squad and should play, but Mulhern won’t be in action in East Yorkshire.
“I think Tuitavake will be OK and (AJ) Towse will be OK,” he added. “Robbie got a scan and it’s precaution that we’re not going to play him this week.
“We’ll wait and see what happens with that, the length of that is unknown at the moment so we’ll wait and see. We’ll power on with the other guys, Towse played really well making his debut, Bailey Hodgson at full-back was great and players like Andy Badrock will probably get an opportunity as well.”
Darnell McIntosh was a notable inclusion in Leigh Leopards’ 21-man squad, with the outside back missing the entirety of the season so far due to a knee injury. However, Lam won’t be rushing him back before he’s ready.
“Darnell is a 50/50 if he was to be considered,” he said. “There was question marks over Umyla Hanley and Davy Armstrong so we just needed that extra outside back in there.
“Darnell’s target was to be right for the Challenge Cup game against Batley and we’ve just brought that forward. The chance of him playing is highly unlikely but if anything happens in warm up to any of the boys, he might have a chance of playing. He’s right on track and we’re grateful that he’s back in the picture.”
