Having made his return from injury this weekend, Leigh Leopards star Umyla Hanley lasted around 25 minutes before having to leave the field yet again.
Hanley, who was a Super League Dream Team centre in 2025, hadn’t featured in a competitive game in 2025, having suffered an injury to his A/C joint (shoulder) in the pre-season game against Warrington.
After missing nine league and cup matches at the start of the season, he returned to the side against the Wolves in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, however a separate issue forced him to leave the action early in the game.
Leopards boss Adrian Lam, who was left overall happy with how his side responded following their poor showing last weekend, explained Hanley’s issue, revealing it is now his opposite shoulder that is the problem.
Speaking to the press post-match, the PNG man said: “He’s missed the last seven, eight weeks with a right shoulder issue. I think he’s hurt the other shoulder today, so it’s just mad.
“It may be an A/C joint or a rotator cuff… it depends on the grade of it, we’ve missed Umyla and his presence an his aggressiveness is what we’ve missed most so fingers crossed it’s not too bad.”
Another man who picked up a knock in the defeat was Tesi Niu. The former Dolphins player made it through the full 80, but did have to receive treatment throughout the game.
“He had a bang to his sternum,” Lam confirmed. “Hopefully he’s okay, it looks like he’s going to be alright through there.”
Niu only returned to the side this week after being absent in last week’s 42-6 loss to Warrington due to a knock.
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Leigh Leopards boss says Umyla Hanley injury “hurt us bad”
Hanley’s early exit forced a reshuffle within the Leopards’ side, as Jack Hughes was pushed to centre and Jacob Alick-Wiencke came on in the back row.
The makeshift edge then became a target for Warrington to attack, and that they did as Toby King crossed for a try to make the scores 12-10 in Wire’s favour after a defensive misread from that edge.
“Umyla going off again shuffles that right hand side. We’ve got a front rower playing in the centres and they catch us out down that right there.
“There was a period down that right hand side where Josh [Charnley] gives awat a penalty on tackle four, they get a repeat set and score from a missed tackle… that just hurt us bad.”
