Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has confirmed an injury blow to one of the club’s international stars before outlining plans on how to replace them.
Lam confirmed that second-rower Frankie Halton could miss a ‘couple of weeks’ after the Ireland international left the field injured in the win over Huddersfield Giants.
Halton left the field with a groin injury in the 24-10 win at the Leigh Sports Village on Sunday and Lam has now confirmed that the 28-year-old has been sent for scans and seen a specialist.
Speaking to the media ahead of the Leopards’ game against Catalans Dragons, Lam confirmed: “We sent for scans on Frankie Halton yesterday and he’s seen the specialist today so we probably won’t know until the end of the week but it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks for Frankie by the looks.
“We’ll know a little bit more tomorrow, hopefully from the back of the scans but we’ll see how we go and off the back of that then we’ll make a decision on who needs to come in.”
It’s a major blow for the Leopards with Halton having had a strong start to the season and really finding his feet at the club in 2024, following his 2023 mid-season move.
Leigh Leopards set international set for spell on sidelines with injury replacements revealed
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With Halton out of the picture for the clash against Catalans and likely longer, Lam now has to decide who he will step into the role and he named two local lads as the likeliest candidates.
He explained: “I think the player that will come in will probably be either Andy Badrock or Louis Brogan, both local Leigh players, both through the Swinton program as a championship club.”
Badrock joined in the off-season and has already been handed a contract extension whilst Brogan was part of the Leopards’ squad in 2024 with Lam keen to see one of those step up to the plate.
“I’m just really excited to get them involved,” the Leopards boss said.
“Louis Brogan made his debut last year for us, so he’s potentially gonna go again and I’m looking forward to it. Both have had a really good pre-season, so I’m excited to get them involved in some way.”
Lam also provided an update on fellow forward Matty Davis who was left in a heap on the floor after he scored, having crashed into the goalpost, with the coach joking about the situation.
“He only got winded there,” confirmed Lam, before explaining: “We had a bit of a joke about that because it looked like he hadn’t scored the try when he got down because he was in that much pain from being winded.
“I said to him, you know, ‘You need to show that you’ve got that down easy so the referee can go up as try as opposed to no try’, but he’s okay. He just got winded and he’s recovered straight away from that.”
Others who will miss the game against Catalans include Darnell McIntosh, Josh Charnley and Ben Nakubuwai.
