Leeds Rhinos are expecting Tom Briscoe to be missing for up to two months - and Liam Sutcliffe is also facing an extended spell on the sidelines. Ex-England winger Briscoe limped off in Friday’s win over Toulouse Olympique and will undergo ankle surgery tomorrow.
Leeds are without a dozen players for tomorrow's home clash with Hull KR after new signing Zak Hardaker was also withdrawn from selection after suffering a suspected seizure on Tuesday. Sutcliffe (knee) is one of those as he battles with the injury that saw him depart in the first half last week.
On fears Briscoe’s injury could be season-ending, caretaker coach Jamie Jones-Buchanan said: “I don’t think it’s quite that extensive. It could be six, seven or eight weeks. I’d be surprised if he was longer than eight weeks.
Read more: No Zak Hardaker and loanee thrown in at the deep end in predicted Leeds Rhinos line-up for Hull KR
“Sutty’s had a knee problem for a while and that’ll be just a case of getting it right and letting it settle down. One of the problems of having a lot of injuries is it increases the volume of work that players like Liam have got to do. He’s got to get on the training field, play in the halves, at centres and at full-back so there’s a lot of volume in there. He won’t have to do that the next few weeks as we’ll get some numbers back. I don’t expect him to be quite as long as Tommy.”
Leeds have recalled 18-year-old second-row Levi Edwards from a loan spell at York City Knights and he could feature against the Robins.
“Levi’s at arm’s length,” said Jones-Buchanan. “He’s been out at York and he’s one of those players we want to have around as he’s not a million miles off. Young Morgan Gannon’s career has really taken off - I think he could be the next Adrian Morley - and we want to get Levi there as well. “Whether he’ll play this weekend or not, I don’t know.
“But he’ll be in and around the squad and hopefully we’ll have him in a Rhinos shirt in the not too distant future.”
With Leeds second-bottom in Super League, the situation is far from ideal. Jones-Buchanan added: “We are delving into the kids, the 17 year-olds. That’s where we’re at. When you look at some of the people who are injured -Tommy Briscoe, Liam Sutcliffe, David Fusitua, Harry Newman, Aidan Sezer, Richie Myler, Tom Holroyd, Jack Walker, Corey Johnson and now Zak with his seizure…
“There’s a couple of suspensions with Zane Tetevano and James Bentley. They are the real disappointments when you have players suspended as you can control that to a degree. That’s the way sport is. But when you think of what the second half of the season looks like when they come back and you get a fresh new coach (Rohan Smith) in there, and we’re relaunching almost, that’s really exciting.”
Jones-Buchanan hopes a handful of the injured players will be fit in time for Leeds’ next Super League game against Salford on May 15.
