Leeds Rhinos will be without both David Fusitu'a and Blake Austin for their must-win clash with Castleford on Saturday. The Rhinos know only a victory will guarantee their place in the play-offs against a Tigers side who themselves are vying for the final spot inside the top six.
Ash Handley, who missed Monday's loss to Catalans ahead of the birth of his first child, and Aidan Sezer, who returns from suspension, are both available and ready to return this weekend. But Fusitu'a's calf problem will keep him sidelined, while Austin is also out injured.
"He won't be available this week," Rohan Smith said of Fusitu'a. "He's probably in doubt for the week after if we make it but we'll see. It's responding well, but he definitely won't be ready for this week."
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Austin, who memorably scored the winning try against Huddersfield last week, actually injured his hip in the warm-up of that game, but played on through the pain barrier. However, he will now miss Saturday's must-win West Yorkshire derby with the Tigers too.
"He got a knock in the warm-up against Huddersfield and battled through the game so he wasn't available on Monday," Smith said. "It's an internal or external rotator in his hip, it's not a common injury but the longer our season goes, the more likely he'll be of getting back in there."
Smith also encouraged his players to avoid to noise surrounding Castleford's injury situation, with the Tigers likely to head across West Yorkshire without a single recognised half-back or fullback to their name.
"Each game is its own," Smith said. "The last performance doesn't matter at all leading into the next one. Before we played them at Magic there was similar chat about people not being available and they played a real hard game that day.
"I'm not too aware of what the noise is and I'd encourage others to stay that way too. People will come across media comments but we've all been around the game long enough to know anything can happen and it's about controlling what you can control."
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