Castleford Tigers coach Daryl Powell plunders teen player pool to prop up ailing first team

Junior Moors, Alex Foster and Oliver Holmes will again be missing when Tigers visit Leeds Rhinos tomorrow and Powell said: “I’ve no idea when they will be back.”

He revealed: “Holmes and Foster have had injections in knee injuries and we’ve no clue on timescale, it’s wait and see how they respond to that.

“Moors is another one we’re not sure about. He hurt his knee and ankle against Catalans [on Easter Monday] and the knee’s causing the most concern. They’ve found some rare extra piece of bone in there which is complicating matters a little bit.”

Prop Will Maher drops out of Tigers’ initial 19-man squad and forward Chris Clarkson is unavailable after suffering a leg injury during the Coral Challenge Cup defeat at Hull five days ago.

Winger Greg Eden was rested last week, but is back in contention and prop Mitch Clark and stand-off Jordan Rankin could also return. Hooker Jacques O’Neill was due to be 19th man, but suffered a head injury in training on Monday so 19-year-old Brad Jinks has been drafted in.

“It’s interesting times, but we will have a good team out and we need to go there and play well,” Powell said. “They are opening the new stand so there’ll be a lot of fanfare and this is a huge game for us.”