Carl Ablett determined to end time on sidelines with Leeds Rhinos

Ablett was due to make his first appearance of the season in last Friday’s game at Hull, but was withdrawn after the warm-up.

The 33-year-old back-rower had surgery two months ago and trained fully last week, but was hit by a late setback.

“It has been a frustrating time,” Ablett said.

“I was feeling really good last week, I was just a bit sore on Wednesday towards the back end of a training session.

“I landed funny and caught the ankle. I did everything I could to get ready for the game.

“Dave (Furner, Rhinos’ coach) was good and we said we’d see how it was in the warm-up.

“It probably wasn’t quite where it needed to be.

“You’re entering a game there where you need to be really good and it probably affected me a bit too much.

“Frustrating as it was, I think it probably was the right call.

“I don’t want to go out there if I’m not right.”

Brad Dwyer warmed up as 18th man and took Ablett’s place in the squad, with Liam Sutcliffe shifting from centre to second-row and Harry Newman starting rather than being a substitute.

“I had full-on treatment after the session on Wednesday and got through the team run on Thursday,” Ablett added.

“It was a bit sore towards the end so I always knew there was a bit of a doubt. I spoke to the doctor and physios and Dave and we said we’d see how it goes.

“I managed to get through the warm-up, but I wasn’t running as free as I’d have liked and the way the game is and the speed of it you can’t go into it if you’re not right.

“We had Brad Dwyer who was 18th man so I think it was right to go with someone who’s 100 per cent and can have an effect on the game.”

Rhinos’ squad for the visit of London Broncos on Friday will be named today. Ablett said: “I went for a scan, just a precaution, on Saturday.

“There was a bit of swelling in there so I am waiting for that to settle down. It has been really frustrating, especially after I trained Monday and Wednesday last week.

“I felt really sharp and good and it was just one of those things, the way I landed on it.

“It has put me back a bit, but I will be doing everything I can this week. It is nothing major now, just a case of getting it right.”

Leeds’ below-par performance in a 34-10 defeat added insult to injury. Ablett said: “It is a frustrating time. We talked about getting a good start, we were 10-0 up and after that we didn’t see the ball.

“There were some soft tries, they were in the ascendancy and managed to rack up a decent amount of points, which is disappointing.

“We need to be better at that, when things go against us and we are conceding we need to react better and not compound it with conceding three or four.

“It is a new group and we are learning.

“By no means has it been a great start, but it is going to be a long season.

“We need to learn what we can from these games and make sure we learn lessons fast because that’s two weeks now where we’ve not performed and defensively we’ve been off.”

Of London, Ablett said: “They’ve had a couple of wins and will fancy themselves, but it is about us and our reaction and putting an 80-minute performance in. We know if we pick up a win we can go on a decent run and we need to start that this week.”