Leigh Leopards coach provides Gareth O’Brien latest as recruitment hint dropped amid injury update

Leigh half-back Gareth O’Brien will see a specialist following his latest failed HIA, and Leopards boss Adrian Lam admits the club may have to upscale their recruitment search for a new playmaker.

Warrington-born O’Brien – who has been at Leigh since the start of the 2023 campaign – turned 33 in October and had to be withdrawn from the field during the Leopards’ defeat at Wigan Warriors last Friday night.

This season alone, it’s the third time that the veteran half has failed a HIA, meaning he must now seek a specialist’s advice before he is able to step foot back on the field.

The former Castleford Tigers ace is off-contract come the end of the season anyway, and the noise coming out of Leigh so far has been that he may well hang up his boots at the culmination of 2025.

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Leigh Leopards coach provides Gareth O’Brien latest as recruitment hint dropped

Lam provided an update on O’Brien in his pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday night’s home game against Hull FC.

He said: “Gaz O’Brien failed a HIA (against Wigan), and he’s had a couple in recent times so he’ll be seeing a specialist tomorrow or early next week.

“He’s obviously going to miss this week through the protocols. We’ll make a call on that early next week, but he probably won’t play for a few weeks I would presume.

“I don’t think (his career is over) at this point, but we need to put Gaz’s health first and foremost.

“He’s down there (on the training pitch) trying to play there for next week, tha’’s the tough player that we have there. He’s very influential on the way we play. We’ll deal with that.

“We’ll play Ben McNamara there if that’s the way we decide to go this week, next week and moving forward. Ben is a young player and I’ve had a lot of time spent with him as a coach and I know what he’s capable of doing.

“We’ll persist with that, but it is a position we’re looking at strengthening as we go along through the season. There’s no doubt Gaz will have some time off, it’s something as a club we’ll take a look at closely in the next week or two.

“I’m pretty excited about that. As I’ve said during the season and every year, we’re a club that has always got our eyes and ears open to players that are interested in coming to the club.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve been looking at players that are a little bit younger and have some X-factor.

“We’ll keep our eyes open as we’ve always done and will do now moving forward.”

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Adrian Lam’s injury update ahead of Hull FC clash

Leigh’s 21-man squad for their meeting with Hull doesn’t include star full-back David Armstrong, who missed last week’s defeat at Wigan.

Ireland international duo Frankie Halton and Keanan Brand both return though, and providing a full injury update, Lam detailed: “David Armstrong (originally) had probably a 50/50 chance of playing this week.

“But, he’s had a lot of niggling injuries back-to-back-to-back and we’ve made him play, and that hasn’t helped the cause. We need him to get right, so that’ll be one more week.

“The other one that comes into consideration is Frankie Halton, which we’ll make a decision on game day.

“Keanan Brand as well will probably come back into consideration and I’m pretty excited about that because he was playing some good rugby (before getting injured).”

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