Leigh Leopards look set to replace the injured Bailey Hodgson by utilising their squad depth with Adrian Lam explaining that whilst the club are always assessing the market, there likely won’t be anyone coming in anytime soon.
Bailey Hodgson is one of ten players that Leigh will be without this Friday when they face Catalans with a strong percentage of that ten being starting players.
Umyla Hanley, Edwin Ipape, Joe Ofahengaue, David Armstrong, Matty Davis and Aaron Pene are all players who would likely feature in Leigh’s strongest matchday squad but Adrian Lam has explained that he would prefer to hand out debuts than necessarily loan players in.
On Friday’s selection, he said: “I think there’s opportunities for players to come in. There might be one or two that make the debut this week and we’ve got to be excited about that.”
As for whether the club had looked at the loan market, he said: It’s always a possibility. We’ve always got our ears and eyes open for those options and possibilities. But for now, there won’t be much movement.”
Who will play full-back for Leigh Leopards?
Whilst there are injuries all across the park, the selection headaches start at full-back as David Armstrong (ACL) isn’t expected to be back for around four more weeks, and Hodgson (PCL) has just been ruled out for eight weeks-plus.
Gareth O’Brien played the final few minutes at the position last Thursday and when asked if he was the obvious candidate to occupy the role, Lam put forward another possibility.
He explained: “I think you’ve just got to take into consideration that there’s Keanan Brand as well that’s played a fair bit of fullback and potentially putting Andy Badrock to right at centre or playing Gaz O’Brien back there at fullback.”
Brand has moved in off the wing during Umyla Hanley’s absence and Lam had used him as an example of players stepping up and seizing their opportunity.
“Keanan Brand has been doing a pretty good job on that (playing centre) as we speak so we’ll just power on with players who will get an opportunity, I guess, to pull that jersey on that it may not have.
“I still think I’ve got a squad there where players have deserved an opportunity and I’ll give them that chance. Like I said, there’s still a squad of 17 players that will get named this week that are itching to go.”
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