Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has spoken on the club’s current injury issues with one key man set for at least four weeks out.
The Leopards have bore the brunt of some bad injury luck so far with several key players missing game time including senior players such as Josh Charnley, Robbie Mulhern and Frankie Halton.
Another of those who has missed plenty of time is winger Darnell McIntosh but the outside back suffered an injury on his return in the Challenge Cup this past weekend.
Adrian Lam has now confirmed that the ex-Hull FC man will miss at least four weeks as a result of that with that lay-off potentially extending to eight weeks.
Speaking to the media, he explained: “It’s sad news for Darnell who was probably one of our best pre-season trainers but he hurt himself on the last day of camp in January and so has missed every game up until the game against Batley on the weekend where he started for us on the left wing.
“He did some really good stuff in that time, scored a try and just popped his AC so that will be anywhere between four and eight weeks out with that. He’s one of our leaders in this group here so he’s going to miss out.”
Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam provides key injury update
Credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
The question is now, as it was for the four rounds of Super League, how Leigh Leopards will replace McIntosh with Lam admitting that the young guns who have stepped up have stepped up well.
He explained: “I think players like Bailey Hodgson who came in off the bench to replace him has done a great job at full-back or wing or centre wherever he’s played this year. AJ Towse is in a similar position.”
Despite the injuries to McIntosh and others, Leigh remain one of the only unbeaten teams in Super League, a record that they will put on the line against Hull KR on Sunday.
Lam was keen to underline those injuries when speaking about the season start, stating: “We’ve got a few boys out and I think a lot of the media have missed that over the last couple of weeks. There is still no Robbie Mulhern or Frankie Halton or Gaz O’Brien, who last week was out, no Josh Charnley or Darnell McIntosh.
“We’ve given debuts to about six players now which is great and the players that have come in have done a great job.”
The positive news for Leigh would be that a number of players are close to return, as Lam stated: “In regards to players coming back, Robbie and Frankie Halton will be back in the next week or two hopefully and Charnley probably won’t be too far off the back of that.”
