Bradford Bulls should have star man Jayden Nikorima available for Saturday evening’s home game against St Helens despite the playmaker still struggling with a shoulder injury.
Nikorima battled on against Catalans despite being in obvious discomfort, with head coach Kurt Haggerty confirming that the issue with his shoulder had flared up the day before the game.
Speaking at a presser on Wednesday, Haggerty confirmed: “Jayden completed a full session today, which is a big step forward for him.”
He explained that it was a ‘very strange injury’, adding: “It’s not so much pain bearing, it almost goes to a point where it goes a bit dead and a bit numb, where he can’t move and it almost locks up, so it’s quite a bizarre injury.
“There’s not a lot you can do for it. Even an injection doesn’t work great, so it’s very much, it should be rest and recovery, but we’re just not in that position for him to rest and recover at the moment.”
Despite that, Haggerty did explain that the pain is ‘easing every day’ with Nikorima getting better and hopefully in line to play on Saturday night.
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Bradford Bulls man set for a month out after avoiding surgery
One man who will not play on Saturday night is Zac Fulton, something that was expected given the most recent update was that he would be send for scans to see if he required surgery on the bulging discs in his back.
Speaking on Wednesday, Haggerty confirmed that won’t be necessary, which is a huge boost as any surgery would have likely been season-ending.
The coach confirmed: “There’s no surgery needed thankfully, and it’s just a case of waiting now. He’s probably going to be out for three or four weeks to let him recover and let it settle, the bulging discs, so it’s not as bad as we thought, but we’re still losing for a period of time.”
Offering a general assessment of the squad’s health, Haggerty explained: “Well, we’ve got ten injuries, but ultimately we have got some bodies back fit as well.
“We speak about we can either fall off a cliff or climb the mountain, and at the moment we’re climbing the mountain because the areas that we need to fix are not as severe as some other clubs and what they’re facing.”
