Bradford’s walking wounded revealed as stars put hand up to play despite injuries

Some of Bradford Bulls’ senior forwards are ‘putting their hand up’ to feature against Huddersfield Giants – with the club set to make a late call on whether they will play with injuries on Friday.

Bradford are once again facing mounting injury problems in their maiden season back in Super League. The latest casualty is forward Leon Ruan, who struggled badly with cramping during the Magic Weekend loss to Leeds Rhinos and has been left out of the 21 to travel across West Yorkshire on Friday as a result.

Zac Fulton and Loghan Lewis have returned to Kurt Haggerty’s squad – but assistant coach Lee Greenwood revealed on Wednesday that the pair, along with Papua New Guinea international Dan Russell, are still not technically fully fit and may well play with injuries.

Bradford Bulls injury update

Greenwood admitted some of the Bulls’ stars should not be in the 21-man squad and likely wouldn’t be if they had a stronger roster available to select from.

But he said with the Bradford squad so impacted by injuries, several key men have put their hands up and are risking their own fitness by declaring themselves available for Friday’s crucial clash at the bottom of the table.

“There’s a few people in who shouldn’t be in, people carrying knocks who are putting their hand up and wanting to play,” Greenwood said.

“We’ll make a decision later in the week. Guys like Zac Fulton, Loghan Lewis, Dan Russell.. they’re all busting a gut wanting to play and be a part of the team. Whether we put one, two or all of them in, we’ll make that decision as late as possible. It might be some of them, it might be none of them.”

On Ruan’s fitness, Greenwood added: “He started cramping up at the back end of the game and he’s been really struggling with that. We’ve made a decision to leave him out of 21, that’s just how it is.”

Bradford will be without forward Phoenix Steinwede for at least the next fortnight following a groin injury picked up against St Helens last month.

“He’ll be another couple of weeks,” Greenwood said. “He’s not too far away; it’s not as severe as what we feared but it’s not ideal. When he first came over, he played one half game before getting an injury and it was the same again (against St Helens). He’s showed nice signs in each of the games he’s played.