Huddersfield Giants lost prop forward Chris Hill to injury two weeks ago and head coach Ian Watson has now confirmed the club still aren’t certain on when he will return.
The England international had featured in the first five of the Giants’ Super League games but missed out on the Challenge Cup clash with Hull FC and the Rivals Round game against London Broncos.
He will miss this weekend’s game against Hull FC as well as a further two weeks as first reported, but beyond that Ian Watson has admitted the club simply don’t know.
Watson did tell BBC West Yorkshire that Hill was recovering nicely and had progressed on with an “ankle clear-out” whilst awaiting further news on his current foot injury.
The Huddersfield Giants’ boss said: “Yeah, he’s going along nicely, he’s got to see a specialist after 5 weeks, so I think we’re on week 3 now. He had a bit of an ankle clear out as well while he’s done what he’s done and getting cleared off the specialist.
“That’s all good now, he can crack on with that, it’s just dealing with his initial injury now, which like I say, we’ll know more after week 5 when he sees a specialist.
“Once he sees the specialist, he’ll be able to give us a definite timeline, whether it’s 3 more weeks after that, 4 more weeks, we don’t know. We’ll wait to see what he says on that.”
Huddersfield Giants’ middles making their mark
Credit: Imago Images
One thing that Watson was keen to point out was that the Giants had remained strong through the middle in the absence of their veteran prop, even name-checking three Englishmen who had impressed.
He noted: “We’ve got real good strength in depth, I’d say in our middles, to be fair. You always miss high-quality players when they don’t play because of their experience and their leadership and things like that.
“In terms of the performances, the boys who’ve come in have done a really, really good job and they’ve put their hands up to own the position themselves. So I think if you look at the development of Oliver Wilson over the last couple of years, he’s been phenomenal. He’s slotted in.”
There were also tips of the hat to Matty English and the recently re-signed Harry Rushton, both players whom Watson offered high praise.
He concluded: “Of course, you miss the big players when they drop out, but the guys who have stepped in have come in and kind of put their hand up and done the job really well.”
Huddersfield Giants will take on Hull FC tomorrow afternoon with the game available to watch live on Sky Sports, details of all rugby league on TV can be found here.
