We have seen some transformative signings in 2023 such as Paul Vaughan at Warrington Wolves, Jake Clifford at Hull FC or Jake Wardle at Wigan Warriors.
One man who has frequently been a transformative signing though has been former man of Steel Luke Gale. An outstanding recruit at Castleford Tigers, when he joined Leeds Rhinos he would deliver their first trophy after the golden generation.
Granted things didn’t go great for him at Hull FC and so he headed to Keighley Cougars only to make the shock switch to Wakefield Trinity as he was parachuted in to save their season.
However, he has now suffered an ankle injury and is set for a scan today.
Fortunately it is not a break as was rumoured.
Now Mark Applegarth has explained what happened.
“Yeah he got a bit of a freak accident if I’m honest with you. He put a kick through in training and just as he was pulling up he tripped up on the back of someone’s leg and caught his other foot in the grass,” he said on BBC Radio Leeds.
“I didn’t actually see it live, I had to look back on the drone. I just turned around and he was withering around in pain on the floor.
“We’re getting him scanned today now the swelling has gone down but we’re hoping it’s not as bad as we first feared.
“We’ll have to wait and see what the scan shows. It’s definitely not broken, we got an x-ray straight away so we’re just hoping it’s a sprain and one of them that doesn’t need any surgery but we’ll see what the scan says.”
He did admit it is a big blow: “Yeah, it is a big blow, but it’s a good chance for other people to step up. It’s one of them, we’ve tried not to make a big song and dance about it, but Luke Gale is a quality player and he adds a lot of value to any team that he’s in.
“It’s a good chance for other people to step up and direct us around that field. It is what it is, every team is going to get some injuries at this stage of the year that ideally you don’t want. It’s more how you respond to that adversity and how you just get on with things instead of using it as an excuse.”
