Castleford star suffers horror injury as Chris Chester provides coaching update

Castleford Tigers look as though they could lose winger Innes Senior for a lengthy period after suffering a possible dislocated ankle during Sunday’s win over Warrington Wolves.

Innes went down in agony as Stefan Ratchford scored a late try for the Wolves, before needing help from the field while being in visible discomfort.

And interim Castleford coach Chris Chester has revealed that Senior’s season could be in jeopardy if scans confirm the club’s worst fears on a serious injury – with the winger’s ankle dislocating out of the socket on the field before going back in.

However, that could have left lasting damage.

“It looks like an ankle dislocation,” Chester told BBC Radio Leeds. “I’ve not really had too much of a chat with the medical people but it looked like it dislocated and went back in. We’ll get him scanned. It’s now next man up mentality, and it gives an opportunity to people who played the reserves yesterday.

“It’s unfortunate for Innes. He did some good stuff and we’re not too sure how long that will keep him out. It could be potentially (his season over). We’ll know more over the next couple of weeks.”

The Tigers now get a break over the next fortnight, and there is likely to be significant progress made on the hunt to find their next head coach during that period.

Chester and the club will narrow down and finalise a shortlist of four candidates to interview in the coming days. He admitted it is one of the biggest decisions the club has made for years.

He told Sky Sports: “We’re going to interview some people this week. We’ve got a list of six or seven that we need to trim down to four and then we’ve got to make sure.. this is the biggest decision I’ll make as a director of rugby and we’ve got to get it right.

“There’s a lot of very good applicants who’ve applied and they’ve seen today what this group of players can do. We’ll take our time with it.”

Chester again reiterated that any appointment may not arrive in England before the end of the season.

He said: “It’s not the be all and end all. The applicants are all tied up with NRL clubs and they’d like to do the right thing and finish with those guys.

“But whoever we think is the right man for the job, I’ll make sure I’m in constant dialogue with that coach and we’ll constantly be talking about recruitment. I don’t envisage anyone to come in before the end of the year.”

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