Huddersfield Giants confirm three more season-ending injuries as coach talks 2027 recruitment opportunities

Huddersfield Giants head coach Jim Lenihan has shared yet more glum news for the club with three season-ending injuries confirmed.

In a season where nearly every club has been hit hard by injuries, Huddersfield have undoubtedly been one of the hardest hit with the Giants missing plenty of key men throughout the year.

They’ve now confirmed three more season-ending injuries with half-back Olly Russell, second-rower Asher O’Donnell and prop Tom Burgess all done for the year.

Russell suffered a suspected Achilles injury in last week’s loss against Bradford and that news has now been confirmed, though it’s not as bad as it could have been

“I think he’s 50% severed or rupture of his Achilles so he’ll be pretty much the rest of the year,” Lenihan confirmed when speaking to BBC Radio Leeds.

“I don’t think it’s going to require any surgery but it’s certainly going to require him to be in a moon boot for probably the next three to four or five months, something like that.

“It will take some time re-knitting itself but it doesn’t require an operation, which is a good point because if it was a total rupture, then they’d have to put him under and re-sew it.

“It’s not good news for Olly but that’s where it is at the moment.”

As for O’Donnell, who was the victim of a hip drop tackle at Magic Weekend, Lenihan confirmed: “Yeah, he’s finished for the year. He needed an ankle reconstruction… It wasn’t a syndesmosis and it needed a tightrope surgery. The hip drop landed on him and I think it ruptured ligaments on the lateral and medial side of his ankle.”

Tom Burgess had spoken to Sky Sports to announce plans for hip surgery, with Lenihan revealing that the prop had in fact gone under the knife.

The Giants coach said: “He had his surgery yesterday. He had a hip surgery, it’s more of a degenerative situation with Tom but he had it done now so there’s plenty of time for him to recover going into next year.

“He’s still signed for next year and he’s putting himself in a position to be in for next year.”

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Huddersfield Giants’ off-contract list creating opportunities for 2027

Another injury sustained that wasn’t season-ending was for Adam Swift with the winger suffering it late against Bradford, though it didn’t become fully apparent until a couple of days after the game.

“Swifty at this point won’t play this week. He’s come out of the game with a calf situation,” Lenihan said.

“In the two or three days post-game, he reported some severe aggravation so we had it scanned and it’s come back that he’s probably four to six weeks with the calf.”

One man who may be returning in the coming weeks is centre Liam Sutcliffe, with Lenihan noting: “He’s training at the moment. I think we’re looking to put him out on loan for this week to give him some game time to make sure that he’s fine… and get him some match fitness for the back end of the year.”

Lenihan also spoke about what sort of squad he can expect next year with Huddersfield having plenty of players off-contract, and that’s something he’s said can offer excitement for the Giants, as well as opportunities for players to prove their worth.

He explained: “We have a fair few people coming off contract, which opens up opportunity but I’ve said to the blokes that are here at the moment that we’re working hard to keep them here.

“If they prove that they are doing what we want to see in our football side and where we want to improve then we want to keep those blokes. If we’re not seeing that from those blokes then we have an opportunity to look for other people.

“There is certainly opportunities for us to change our personnel and it’s up to the individuals to put themselves in the picture to stay.”