Huddersfield Giants could be bolstered by the return of star full-back George Flanagan this weekend with new head coach Jim Lenihan revealing that the youngster is one of three who could return.
Flanagan has been out since suffering an ankle injury against Hull KR back in March but he, alongside Tom Burgess and Connor Wrench, could feature on Saturday against Toulouse Olympique.
The Giants will be the home side although the game will be played at Dewsbury instead of Huddersfield, a ground where the Giants almost beat Wigan Warriors last year.
On his squad for tomorrow, Lenihan said in his presser: “We’ve just finished our captain’s run now so some of those blokes, we’ll just see how they pull up after that today.
“Tommy Burgess is in that category, George Flanagan, and even Connor Wrench, so all of those boys have got through the biggest parts of training this week and they’re shaping okay.
“Hopefully we get a good reaction over the next five to ten hours and if everything in the morning wakes up pretty good then we’re all green.”
Specifically on game-changer Flanagan, Lenihan said: “I’ve seen a fair bit of him on video before I got here… The last five sessions we’ve had going into Toulouse, he’s had a really good energy about him, he’s excited to play. He’s loud, he’s boisterous, he’s what we want at the moment.”
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Huddersfield Giants focusing on two key areas amid myriad of problems
Adding those three players back into the squad will only be a part of finding success with the Giants a long way off the mark in their last game as they lost 52-0 to Leeds Rhinos.
“Definitely, we’ve had really good buy-in this week from the players,” Lenihan said when asked if the week off had been positive.
“We’re trying to take a little bit of the pressure off us winning or losing the game, we don’t want to put ourselves in a position where we’re worrying about that.
“We’re just really trying to find some detail on the way we play this week and really focusing on the process.”
That process is a long one with Lenihan admitting that his side must focus on key areas to fix as opposed to trying to address each and every issue at once.
He said: “We had a look at some of the parts of the game. There’s no point trying to fix up 75 parts of our game but there are some really big parts that we’ve got to work on, and that’s our tackle and our ruck control.
“It’s really important that we get a good clear mindset of what we’re trying to achieve and a good physical outcome that follows.”
A loss against Toulouse would see the Giants rooted to the foot of the Super League table, at least two points adrift from every other club.
