Hull KR star forward Jai Whitbread is still awaiting the birth of his child with the Australian’s availability possibly set to be impacted for the second week in a row.
Whitbread was named in Hull KR’s 21-man squad for the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, however, he did not travel with the squad and instead ended up remaining at home as he and his partner awaited the birth of their baby.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Willie Peters confirmed that the situation is very much the same with the child unborn but there is a chance that Whitbread could play, given he lives close to his former club Wakefield, who Hull KR face on Saturday.
“Hopefully soon. No baby has arrived at this stage,” Peters confirmed when speaking on Wednesday.
“It depends on when the baby is born but he’ll be next door, instead of being a few hours down the road in London.
“It’s obviously a long distance from Wakefield but Jai lives over that way, so again, it’s all going to be dependent on when the baby is born.”
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Tevita Pangai Jr in line for Hull KR debut
Whitbread’s absence was noted at Wembley and it was made all the more severe when Dean Hadley failed a head injury assessment inside three minutes, something that will rule him out on Saturday.
The other big injury concern from the game was Mikey Lewis with the star half-back picking up an ankle knock that left him playing through the pain, however, Peters has confirmed that the former Man of Steel should be good to go.
“He’s okay. He got through training today,” the head coach said, before teasing that recent signing Tevita Pangai Jr could be set to debut.
Peters confirmed: “We’ll name Tevita this week. We’ll just see whether he’s ready to go, so we’ll make a call later on the week.
“As I said, he had a bit of a calf issue so we just need to see whether he’ll be ready this week or possibly next but we’ll wait and see.”
The Australian also confirmed that Karl Lawton was fit with the decision to leave him out against Wigan a tactical one, as opposed to injury-enforced given the utility player’s recent rib and nose injuries.
“We wanted to start Jez at hooker, and we just felt if Jez needed a rest, then Bill could come on and give us a little bit from nine. That was the reason for it,” Peters explained when asked why Lawton was only named 18th man against Wigan.
