Castleford Tigers confirm mixed injury news with skipper out but two set to return

The Tigers issued an injury update to fans and have identified which players are set to be sidelined for weeks or months and which squad members have a chance of being ready to go against Warrington Wolves on Friday, June 23.

Head physiotherapist Matty Crowther confirmed that captain Paul McShane fractured his arm in the game against Salford while Mahe Fonua failed his head injury assessment after suffering a concussion.

He explained: “Macca has a fractured forearm so he will need an operation and will see a specialist.

"From that, they will make a prognosis but to make an estimate on how long he will be out for, it will probably be around eight weeks and we will be working closely with him to aid his recovery.

“Mahe has got to go and see a specialist with his concussion from the other day because he’s had a couple in the last year.

"How long he will be out will be dependent on what the specialist’s prognosis is.”

Cas lost forwards George Lawler and Sam Hall in the build-up to last week’s game with Crowther expecting the former to be out for about a month with a quad strain and the latter suffering a knee injury that was being assessed day by day.

Outside backs Elliot Wallis and Niall Evalds suffered pectoral injuries recently with Crowther hopeful of a speedy recovery for young winger Wallis, but it was likely to be a longer spell on the sidelines for the Cas number one.

He outlined: “Elliot has got an injury to his pec and he will see a specialist just to diagnose and see where he is at.

"It’s a funny sort of injury so we are hoping it will just be a rest period and some rehab before going back into it.

"Sometimes they can be complicated depending on where the tear is for the healing process, so we’ll see how he gets on at the specialist.

“Niall is good. He’s just had his first week post-operation after rupturing his pectoral and there’s been no complication with the surgery. He’s looking at around being a good few months away so it will be touch and go whether he will be back for the final run-in of the season for us.”

Crowther did have some good news to give fans with players on the way back, however.

He said: “Greg (Eden) is getting up to full speed, he’s just ticking off a few return-to-play markers and then he will be in full training and available for selection.

"Nobody likes missing games and unfortunately, Greg has missed a few over the years so he can’t wait to get back.

“Alex (Mellor) is going through his return to play (after concussion) and has passed all the different levels. All he’s got to do is to do a bit of contact work now so as long passes them he be ready to go for next week.

“Danny (Richardson) is doing really well through his rehab. The surgeon said that it was a really serious injury because it was his MCL and ACL, so he had to wait for his MCL to heal before they operated on his ACL.

“The surgeon requested for him to have the year so I would say he will be fit around November time and that’s nine months to a year from his operation which is a blow for him but he’s flying through his rehab and we are keen to welcome him back to the squad as soon as he is fit enough.”

Young prop Kieran Hudson is also on the road to recovery from an achilles injury.

“It was a nasty one for Kieran,” explained Crowther. “I really feel for him because he had a really good off-season to get to the fitness level that we wanted him to get to.

"The injury came off the back of the high intensity work he was doing and an Achilles is normally around a nine-month turnaround post-surgery so he’ll be looking at the back end of the season.”

Crowther gave an update on how Jacques O’Neill was getting on in his quest to return to the field since coming back to the club.

“Jacques is a bit away from getting on the field at the moment.

"We are working closely with him to try and get him more mobile. Since leaving the Tigers in 2021 with an injury, his career took him to a completely different line of work and coming back into a tough environment is a hard ask.

"We've got to try and make him as durable as possible to get him back into a Super League playing environment again.

“Long-term injuries are tough at the best of times, especially when you are young. Those lads have been supporting each other and they are all young enough to get over these injuries. The support network is there for everyone at the club.”

Castleford have also confirmed that prop Suaia Matagi has flown home to New Zealand due to a recent family bereavement.