Leeds Rhinos dealt fresh Mikolaj Oledzki and Jake Connor injury blows ahead of Super League opener

Leeds Rhinos will be without a string of senior players for Friday night’s Super League opener at Leigh Leopards – with Mikolaj Oledzki and Jake Connor potentially out for even longer.

The Rhinos head across the Pennines to begin the 2026 season without a whole host of frontline stars, many of whom are expected to return next week. They include Keenan Palasia, Jeremiah Mata’utia and Cameron Smith – but the news on Oledzki and Connor is far less clear.

Oledzki came off last week against Widnes with a rib problem that will require him to see a specialist on Monday. He could miss as much as six weeks of action, though it will be dependent on how quickly the issue heals.

And Connor will be absent for at least this week and perhaps further down the line than that. He suffered a knee injury last week in the run-up to the Challenge Cup game at Widnes – with Arthur describing the reigning Man of Steel as ‘touch and go for the next two or three weeks’.

Of Oledzki, he said: “We’re still waiting for 100 per cent confirmation, he sees a specialist on Monday. But his ribs could be anywhere from two to six weeks.

“It’s a day at a time with him. It was quite nasty. Ribs are hard to see how long they take to heal. At the moment you could say he’s two months away from playing he’s in that much pain but they change quickly. There’s nothing you can really do except rest. Once he gets to a stage where he can tolerate a bit of pain going into the game that’s fine but he can hardly move.

“It’s unfortunate for Mik. We were going okay with injuries throughout pre-season and then in the space of three games we’ve got eight or nine with blokes unavailable for selection.

“It’s part of the game, unfortunately – it’s why you have big, heavy squads and invest in your youth programmes. A couple of the younger guys will now get a game in Round 1 where they might not have expected it three or four weeks ago.”

On Connor, Arthur added: “Jake Connor has taken a knock to his knee in training and he’s touch and go for the next two or three weeks. Last Thursday he did it. It’s frustrating for Jake, we sat him out of the game and it might be a lesson for us too, to take it as it comes.

“It’s one of those where he’s pushing for next week and he’ll do everything he can but it’s a long season. If it’s not right, we’ll give him longer.”

Young half-back George Brown will make his Super League debut alongside Brodie Croft in the absence of Connor.

When rounding up the rest of the injuries across Leeds’ squad, Arthur said: “Keenan, Jerry, both those guys are pushing for next week or the following week. Cameron Smith has a slight aggravation to his groin and if you played in a Grand Final this week you’d risk it, but he’ll only miss a week. Ash Handley is still recovering from his groin injury so he’s maybe a couple of weeks.”

There is slightly better news elsewhere, with Chris Hankinson and Lachie Miller set to return. James McDonnell is also pushing to be fit after missing the Widnes game with injury.