WIGAN WARRIORS LOAN MAN RULED OUT OF CASTLEFORD TIGERS DEBUT BUT EX-LEEDS RHINOS AND TRINITY CENTRE WILL PLAY

Former Wakefield Trinity forward Sam Eseh’s loan spell at Castleford Tigers could be over before it really began after he fell victim to the club’s injury curse.

The Leeds-born prop was brought in on Tuesday to begin a two-week deal, but suffered an injury in the final training session ahead of Friday’s visit of London Broncos and is now in doubt for next week’s game at Leigh Leopards. Speaking at his weekly preview press conference this morning (Thursday), coach Craig Lingard said: “Sam has unfortunately just pulled up in the team run today, so he's going to be missing this week.

“That's a bit of a blow for us. We brought him in for a reason, to give us a bit of an impact, but unfortunately, he's going to miss out. He is coming back from a hamstring injury, he played in Wigan’s reserves last week and he just felt it cramp up this morning.

“We're not going to push him through that and get him to the game and five or 10 minutes in it goes completely and puts him back another eight to 10 weeks. As staff and talking to Sam as well, the best route is to pull him out of the game and go with 17 fit blokes.”

Read more: Castleford Tigers sign Leeds rugby league clubs' ex-junior player Sam Eseh on loan from Wigan Warriors

Luke Hooley, Paul McShane and Joe Westerman are all in Tigers’ initial squad after injury and Danny Richardson and Alex Mellor - who were named in last week’s 21, but did not play - retain their place. Ex-Leeds and Wakefield centre Corey Hall is set to make his debut on loan from Hull KR, alongside former Hull FC full-back Tex Hoy.

London are bottom of the table and yet to win this season so a Tigers victory would lift them four points clear of the wooden spoon. “We’ve got a lot of experienced bodies back now so the squad is looking a lot stronger than it has done in recent weeks,” Lingard said.

“There’s a great opportunity in this next month to try and gain some momentum, but we don’t want to look too far ahead. Our first focus is Friday and we have put some pressure on people individually to be more competitive throughout their involvements.”

Tigers were beaten 36-14 at Wigan last Friday and Lingard added: “I thought we were a lot more competitive in individual areas throughout the game and the challenge for us now is to do that for longer. If we do it for 80 minutes I think we’ll be all right, but if we are off in any part of the game, London are good enough to get the win as well.”

Daniel Hindmarsh will play on loan at Whitehaven this week and Samy Kibula, who is in the 21, has been dual-registered with Batley Bulldogs. Josh Hodson and Charel Tasipale drop out from last Friday’s side, along with Jack Broadbent following his move to Hull KR.

Castleford Tigers: from Hooley, Wood, I Senior, Richardson, Miller, Watts, McShane, El Zakhem, Mellor, Westrman, Horne, Milnes, S Hall, Robb, Martin, Kibula, Hill, L Senior, Hoy, C Hall, Eseh.

London Broncos: from Walker, Kershaw, Bassett, Miloudi, Macani, Meadows, Butler, Davis, Lovell, Natoli, Parata, Stock, Williams, Adebiyi, Kennedy, Leyland, Storey, Hughes, Jones, Makin, Tison.

Referee: Jack Smith (Wigan). Kick-off: Friday, 8pm.

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