Castleford Tigers hunting more new signings after fresh long-term injury blow

Castleford Tigers are set to head into the transfer market once again, with a back-rower high on their agenda after a lengthy injury to Jeremiah Simbiken.

Simbiken suffered a knee injury during last weekend’s victory over Huddersfield Giants, and Castleford coach Danny McGuire admitted in the aftermath of that win that things did not look good for the forward.

That has now been confirmed, with Simbiken set to undergo knee surgery that will rule him out for at least the next three months.

McGuire said on Thursday: “I don’t want to jump the gun medically but it’s going to be a lengthy one. He’s having an operation in a couple of weeks and we’ll have to reassess it from that.

“I’d say 12 weeks, best case scenario I’m being told – and that’s best-case. It’s not a position where we’re blessed with numbers: Mells (Alex Mellor) is our only back-rower in the squad. So it’s something we’ll have to look at.”

That left McGuire admitting the club will go into the transfer market to try and find someone to add to their thinning back-row options.

Castleford have already done a plethora of mid-season recruitment with the likes of Tom Amone and Brad Singleton coming in.

And the Tigers’ transfer business is certainly not done yet, it seems.

When asked if he would be looking for a new forward, McGuire said: “I think so. We’ll have to wait and see. We’ve got people who can fill in that position.

“George Lawler and Joe Westerman can do it but I don’t think we can go the rest of the season without an out-and-out back-rower. It potentially might be something we look at. I’ll have to see if that’s possible.”

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