Castleford Tigers: Injured Tiger Springer will miss Wigan

And coach Daryl Powell admitted he won’t know until late today – at the earliest – if any of Tigers’ nine other casualties will be fit for the fourth versus seventh showdown.

Springer was among Tigers’ substitutes in last Sunday’s 34-24 win at Widnes Vikings, when the visitors hit back from 18-0 down after as many minutes.

“He was having an awesome game, but he suffered a recurrence of a groin problem,” Powell reported.

“It’s not too bad, but he had to leave the field and could not go back on.

“It is a short turnaround from Sunday to Friday, so I don’t think he will be available this week.”

Injuries forced Powell to field several young players against Widnes, including centre Greg Minikin and stand-off Tom Holmes. He added: “We will have to check on a few this week, but I don’t know at this stage whether anybody is going to be back.”

Powell felt the win two days ago – on Widnes’ artificial pitch – was one of the best of his time in charge.

“We’ve had a couple of big ones,” he said. “Beating Leeds and Huddersfield recently were big wins and we have won three out of four over the Easter period.

“But certainly, going over there and getting the result was a very big win – particularly after starting so poorly.

“We didn’t have the ball until we were 12-0 down – we were just kicking off.

“The character and composure shown to get back into it and go on and win the game was pretty special.

“The spirit of the team was there for everybody to see.”