Fresh Leigh injury concerns revealed ahead of crunch St Helens clash as Keanan Brand recalled

Leigh Leopards are still to make calls on David Armstrong, Umyla Hanley and Josh Charnley ahead of Friday night’s crunch clash against St Helens: with Keanan Brand recalled from his loan at Castleford Tigers.

Australian full-back Armstrong – who spent close to a year out with a ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) – strained his knee in Leigh’s big win over Bradford Bulls a fortnight ago.

Though his injury is not a serious one, the decision was taken not to risk him last weekend against Huddersfield Giants, with the Leopards suffering a shock defeat at the Accu Stadium.

Post-match, head coach Adrian Lam said Armstrong would probably return this weekend as his side host Saints where anything but defeat would see their play-off spot guaranteed.

But now, it’s been confirmed there are no guarantees over Armstrong’s return: with minor doubts over outside-backs Charnley and Hanley.

Fresh Leigh injury concerns revealed

Lam undertook pre-match media duties on Tuesday afternoon, with his Leopards side sat fifth on the ladder heading into the penultimate round of the regular season.

On Armstrong, he detailed: “I’m going to give him up until kick-off to be ready.

“There won’t be too many changes to the side, to be honest. I’m the type of coach where when you perform like that (against Huddersfield), I like to give players an opportunity to respond and fix up what we did wrong.

“There maybe one or two players I can consider to come onto the bench or change something to make us better, but we’ll wait and see how that unfolds.”

Charnley – with a lower limb issue – and Hanley – with a back problem – both pulled up during the defeat at Huddersfield, but got through the 80 minutes.

Lam explained: “They both trained today, which is a positive sign, and so did Davey Armstrong.

“Keanan Brand is into the picture and Matty Davis didn’t play last week but he’s in the picture. There are a few players that are there or thereabouts.

“Ryan Brown gets cleared this week. He’s not quite clear yet, but AJ Towse has been cleared. They cannot go out on loan now, but those players are sitting there ready to go if we feel we need to add them to the 21-man squad.

“We’ll decide on the 17 (for St Helens) during Captain’s Run.”

Keanan Brand loan recall

Having been sidelined through an ankle injury since March, outside-back Brand was sent out on a season-long loan to fellow Super League side Castleford last month alongside team-mates Ben McNamara and Lazarus Vaalepu.

The Ireland international is Leigh’s longest-serving player and having featured twice for Cas, has now been recalled.

Leopards boss Lam said: “He is (in with a chance of playing).

“With Davey Armstrong the way he is and Gaz O’Brien at full-back who can also cover halves, I need someone who can cover the outside-backs with some doubt over Umyla and Josh Charnley, as mentioned.

“It also puts pressure on everyone. The players don’t need pressure, but they need stability, control and support. The human being needs to be told everything is going to be okay.

“Keanan is a key player for us, he’s missed a lot of game time this year through being injured and I think he can bring us a bit of X-factor. We’ll see what happens.”