Leigh sweating on Josh Charnley’s fitness for York clash as injury update issued

Leigh Leopards have no fresh injury concerns ahead of this weekend’s home clash against York Knights, but are still sweating over the fitness of Josh Charnley.

Charnley, 36, missed last weekend’s defeat at home against former employers Wigan Warriors through a twisted ankle suffered the week previous as Leigh beat another of his former clubs in the shape of Warrington Wolves.

The veteran winger spent the beginning of last week in a protective boot, and though that had been removed a few days prior to gameday, he did not recover in time to feature against Wigan.

Post-match, head coach Adrian Lam explained that he and hooker Edwin Ipape, who sat out of the defeat following a failed Head Injury Assessment (HIA) the week prior, would likely return against York.

But Charnley’s involvement on Friday night is now under threat.

Leigh sweating on Josh Charnley’s fitness for York clash as injury update issued

Still off-contract, 11-time England international Charnley has scored 24 tries for Leigh this season in 21 appearances across all competitions.

Providing an injury update in Tuesday afternoon’s pre-match press conference ahead of the clash against York, head coach Lam explained: “Two are definitely back in contention.

“(Josh) Charnley is a 50/50, so we’re going to give him right up until kick-off, but we’ve obviously got Edwin Ipape back.

“There’s no one on the way out, so those two players will come into consideration for us.”

Elsewhere, the Leopards were without young front-rower Ryan Brown for last weekend’s game against Wigan, which saw the hosts lead 8-0 until the 37th minute when a long-range try from Jai Field sparked a comeback for the visitors.

Brown – who only turned 21 in May – has featured ten times for Leigh so far this season, but appears unlikely to add to that tally this weekend against York.

Lam said: “At the moment, he’s not tracking as good as we thought.

“He is in with a small chance, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

“He’s got a quad injury and he’s also got a little bit of an ankle sprain, so all of that has compounded in him not running, that’s been the issue.”

Leigh have won 11 of their last 14 games and currently occupy sixth spot on the Super League ladder with only six games of the regular season remaining.