Leigh Leopards boss Adrian Lam has revealed plans to make a raft of changes to his line-up on Friday night when Salford Red Devils arrive at Leigh Sports Village.
Leigh have been carrying a number of small issues in recent weeks and Lam sees this week as opportunity to change things up and give a number of players the chance to stake a claim heading into the final weeks.
Among those dropping out of the fold this week will be Edwin Ipape, who has been playing through the pain of multiple issues, Joe Ofahengaue, who has a hamstring strain, and Frankie Halton, who has a shoulder injury. Gareth O’Brien, Umyla Hanley and Owen Trout find themselves in similar situations.
As such, those players will be allowed to rest up this week, with Adrian Lam giving a rundown of his team news ahead of Friday night’s home game against Salford, which Leigh need to win if they are to reduce the gap between themselves and the top two to just one point.
Leigh Leopards boss talks injuries
“We’re looking good, there’ll be a couple of changes in there but we’re pretty excited about that, we were disappointing last week and we’ve been carrying a few niggly injuries as well over the last three or four weeks,” Lam said when asked about his team news. “It’s an opportunity to make sure those players get themselves sorted and for one or two players to come in and freshen up the group.
“There’s around six players coming into the team to freshen the team up, we’ve got Aaron Pene, who has been out for a long time who’ll be back this week, Tuitavake, Brad Dwyer, Darnell McIntosh, AJ Towse and Andy Badrock.”
On those missing the contest, Lam added: “Edwin has had a couple of niggly injuries, groin and knee and hamstring. He’s got a couple of small ones that we’re trying to sort out but that should be fine within a week.
“Joff [Ofahengaue] has had a grade two on his hamstring so that could potentially be around four or five weeks. Hopefully if he responds quickly it could be three weeks. We’re working on that because it’s important as we get to the back end.
“Frankie Halton has had an AC joint sprain up on his shoulder and players like Owen Trout have got the same. Umyla has a tight calf, Gaz O’Brien has had a few head knocks, the list goes on and on. We’ve just got an opportunity there to get some fresh bodies in who are fighting for positions.”
