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Mark Applegarth provides big Luke Gale update

Last week we were sadly left worrying about two players.

Both James Batchelor of Hull KR and Jack Croft of Wakefield Trinity were stretchered off at the Magic Weekend.

However, as Batchelor sadly faces eight weeks in a neck brace, Croft could play this week against Leeds Rhinos.

“Jack’s alright, he went for some scans, he got the all clear. He’s just obviously a little bit tender but he’s trained all week with us, albeit we’ve been a bit smart with him in terms of the contact but he’s keen to just crack on and put himself available for selection,” Mark Applegarth said on BBC Radio Leeds.

“He’s gone through training today, we’ll see how he’s responded to that and see how he is Saturday morning.”

Asked if he could play, Applegarth said: “Yeah, I mean, he’s gone in to tackle Josh and I think he’s just caught his neck. And then, good sportsmanship by Josh, obviously, making sure that he were alright. We thank him for that massively.

“It’s never nice to see them sort of incidents, especially when games stop for five or six minutes, you always fear the worst, so it’s good to see a positive outcome from it as well.

“It’s never nice to see. You expect certain injuries playing a collision sport, but it’s never nice to see them sort of injuries where a stretcher goes on.

“I’m just glad it’s had a positive outcome in this case, but yeah, he’s keen to put his hand up and put himself up for selection.

He confirmed however two players would be out after head knocks against Leigh Leopards:

“Obviously we’ve got Josh Bowden out, Jordy Crowther is going to be out. Both of them have been dealing with some head assessment protocols, so them two will be out.

“We’ll see how we’re looking on a couple of others. We might get a couple of bodies back in, but we’ve still got a few out as well. So we’ll see how we’re looking Saturday.”

The big injury talking point is the fact former Leeds Rhinos star Luke Gale is 50/50 to play against the Rhinos.

The former Man of Steel and Wakefield’s star signing has yet to play for the club.

Applegarth said: “To be perfectly honest with you, I’d probably say 50-50. He’s at that point now and he’s just been doing a kicking session with his half-backs and he’s getting through that.

“It’s more the just making sure that it is fully healed and he can deal with day-to-day stress, the game demands of what’s going to be put on it. So we’ll see how he pulls up but he’s genuinely 50-50 for this Leeds game.

“It would be nice to have him, I am desperate to get him on that field, I think he’ll be massive for us in terms of helping steer us around that field and give us a bit of composure. But at the same time, you can’t help being injured, we just have to make sure that when he is back on that field he’s full of it.

“He wants to play every minute of every game that is available. He’s aware of the situation and he thinks he can help massively. I know he can help massively, but we’ve just got to be smart.

“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t bring him back and he breaks down and then we wait another three, four weeks to get him on field. So we’ve just got to make sure he’s 100% healed first.”

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