Adrian Lam has confirmed that Tesi Niu could miss the remainder of the season with the knee injury that he sustained at Magic Weekend, as he also revealed that Leigh Leopards picked up three more injuries in that win over Warrington Wolves.
Niu was helped from the field after a hip drop tackle from Sam Powell that subsequently landed the Wire man a three-match ban but whilst Powell will miss three matches, Niu could miss the remainder of the season with what Lam has described as a bad injury.
Speaking to the media today (Wednesday) ahead of the Leopards’ game against Castleford on Saturday, the Leigh boss confirmed it will be a long-term injury.
“We all know that he’s hurt his knee there through that incident but injury wise it looks at the moment that he’s ruptured his MCL and there’s a fair bit of damage to his cartilage. We’re getting to the bottom of exactly what the time frame is there but it could be the rest of the season,” Lam explained.
He also confirmed more information will come to light in the coming hours: “It doesn’t look good at the moment. It does look long-term. It does look like it may be the season but we’ll get a little bit more information about that over the next 24 hours.”
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Leigh Leopards injury list revealed
As well as losing Niu to what could be a season-ending injury, Leigh also saw three forwards pick up issues with Joe Ofahengaue certain to miss the game against Castleford, whilst both Robbie Mulhern and Aaron Pene are doubts.
Lam said: “We’re going to give Robbie Mulhern and Aaron Pene until captains run to be available but both of those have got niggly calves and achilles there.
“(Joe) Ofahengaue has got a 1B calf strain/tear. That’s going to be two or three weeks for Joe.”
Jacob Alick-Wiencke, who missed Magic Weekend, is also set for another two weeks on the sidelines with an MCL strain but there is a positive in that Jack Hughes returns from suspension whilst new signing Lazarus Vaalepu could also feature.
“We’re going to need them,” Lam admitted, adding: “If we’re without two or three of our big forwards, if Pene doesn’t play and Mulhern doesn’t play and Joffa doesn’t play, that’s a big loss for us as a club.”
He also confirmed that Josh Charnley will return to offer options in the back line but long-term absentees AJ Towse and Keanan Brand still remain out.
“I think AJ (Towse) is training back on field with us there but he’s still four or five weeks away and Keenan’s six plus.”
