Leigh Leopards coach confirms Tesi Niu injury blow as prognosis revealed

Leigh will be without Tesi Niu for up to five weeks through a calf injury, Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has confirmed.

Centre Niu arrived back from Leigh‘s win at Catalans Dragons at the beginning of May with muscle tightness, but had trained all week in the build-up to last Saturday’s home clash against Hull KR and was named in Lam’s 17.

But just prior to the warm-up at the Leopards’ Den, the Tonga international was withdrawn from the game, with AJ Towse replacing him as he played on the wing and Innes Senior shifted into the centres to fill the void.

Lam’s side were ultimately beaten 20-16 by the Robins, and after that game, the head coach confirmed Niu would not feature in this weekend’s clash against Hull FC.

But now, it has been confirmed that he may have to sit out a while longer.

Leigh Leopards coach confirms Tesi Niu injury blow as prognosis revealed

The Leopards host Hull on Friday night and then are without a game next weekend through the Challenge Cup final, which they are not involved in.

When Super League returns, they then face back-to-back trips to Castleford Tigers and Bradford, having earlier this week been confirmed to square off against the Bulls in Las Vegas next February.

Niu is expected to miss all three of those games over the next few weeks, and even potentially more, as Lam explained in his pre-Hull press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The Leopards’ boss detailed: “Tesi, who pulled out of the warm-up (against Hull KR), I’m obviously not going to play him this week.

“He has got a Grade 2 calf injury, they (the medical team) are saying four or five weeks.

“The timing, again, having the Wembley weekend next weekend certainly helps.

“Tesi’s running and hopefully it’s sooner than that. But he’ll be the only admission from the last 17 that was named to start the game (against Hull KR) before we changed it.

“The team won’t change (other than that).”