Castleford Tigers are still sweating on the fitness of strike centre Krystian Mapapalangi after he missed out on last week’s narrow loss to Leigh Leopards.
Mapapalangi has been far and away the Tigers’ best player in 2026 and his absence was obvious in that defeat with the NRL signing pulling out in the warm-up on account of a corked hamstring.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, 24 hours before he names his 21-man squad for Sunday’s game against Leeds Rhinos, Ryan Carr explained that there’s still no certainty that the centre will feature.
On Mapapalangi, Carr said: “He’s sort of like been working really hard on his rehab and recovery to get that sorted.
“He had a bad dead leg there for probably like three weeks. He just kept getting a whack on it every week and it just became a little bit too much last weekend.
“We’ll get a read on him as this week goes on, that’s for sure,” Carr explained before confirming that the centre is ‘definitely a chance of playing’.
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Castleford Tigers boss shares injury update
Whilst Mapapalangi pulled out before the game, Castleford also lost Jordan Lane early in the second half to a hip flexor strain.
Offering an update on the forward, Carr said: “He’s never had it before. He wasn’t sure what it was that was giving him the grief, but he came off at the 44th minute, within four minutes after half-time, which, again, sort of a change we weren’t planning on.
“Again, he’s the ultimate professional, he’s doing everything he can. It’s settling quite well, so we’re hopeful to be able to get him up for this week too.”
As for other possible squad changes to the 21 named last week, Carr confirmed that he doesn’t foresee much changing, though matchday changes could occur.
He said: “In terms of the main bulk of the squad that we took across to Leigh there, even with Maps coming out and a couple of others, it should be a very similar type of crew, I reckon.”
One person who could return is Tyler Dupree with the forward still going through the head knock protocols after failing a HIA at Magic Weekend.
Carr confirmed: “He’s still working through the protocols, they’re pretty regimented on that.
“We’re hopeful, obviously, but we’ve just got to go through and tick every little box on the way to this weekend and see that he gets through every stage that he needs to.”
