Leeds Rhinos handed Lachie Miller boost as Andy Ackers selection hint dropped

Leeds Rhinos have been handed a major boost ahead of Saturday’s clash with Warrington – with Lachie Miller declared fully fit and ready to feature.

Miller left the field at half-time during the win over Wakefield Trinity and didn’t return for the second half after picking up a calf injury in the latter stages of the first half.

Brad Arthur admitted in the aftermath of that game that he was unsure how long Miller would be missing for. But, speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Arthur revealed that Miller had been cleared to return to action sooner than expected.

Arthur said: “He is good to go. That’s credit to the high performance staff who made that tough decision to get him off at half-time. They put their foot down and said he needed to come off but now, on reflection we’ve made the right decision. Credit to those guys for being forceful and making that happen.”

Andy Ackers has returned to Leeds’ 21-man squad for the first time since mid-March, having been ruled out for three months with a hamstring tear.

That has led to Jarrod O’Connor taking on an increasingly important role at hooker and Arthur hinted that O’Connor may continue in that position on Saturday despite Ackers’ return.

He said: “Andy has got really good experience and he’s been out for a while but Jarrod has been one of our better players. There’s been some tough conversations this week.

“The form of Jarrod helps with the decision so I’ll need to have a reason to make change at the moment, and I don’t have a reason.

“They’re all doing a job, it’s unfortunate for Ackers that he got injured but I’m proud of the whole club because we never had the same team for 40 minutes straight at the start of the season.”

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