Castleford Tigers man set for long-awaited return as doubts raised over teammate's future before Hull KR trip

Three-quarter Will Tate is due to make his comeback from an ankle injury when Tigers’ second string visit Hull KR Saturday and could be in first team contention by the end of this month. “We’ll hopefully try to get him 80 minutes,” coach Craig Lingard confirmed of this weekend’s reserves game.

“But it has been pretty much 12 months since he has played so if we need to give him 50-60 minutes and then take him off, we’ll look after him. We are hoping we are going to get Will back to potentially play maybe the last two, three, four games of the season if his rehab goes well and there’s no ill-effects from him playing on Saturday.”

Corey Hall is ruled out of Friday’s Betfred Super League fixture at Hull KR because of concussion so Luis Johnson will move to centre and Nixon Putt is set to start in the second-row. That will be Putt’s seventh Super League appearance since joining Tigers in pre-season on a two-year deal and Lingard said: “We’ll see how he goes. He has waited for his chance, he has been out and played a bit of dual-registration in the Championship for Batley and it’ll be interesting to see how he goes against KR in Super League.”

Asked at his weekly pre-match press conference today (Thursday) about rumours the 28-year-old Papua New Guinea international will return to the southern hemisphere at the end of the campaign, Lingard said: “I think he will be going home regardless, because his missus has gone back home already.

“She is due to give birth so she went back two or three weeks ago. He is definitely going home, but he is contracted to us for next year. If he wants to stay at home or doesn’t want to come back, we will have that conversation with Nixon, but at the moment he is contracted with us for next season and we’ll take that situation as it comes.”

Jason Qareqare will feature on Friday after missing last week’s defeat by Leigh Leopards with a hamstring strain. Lingard confirmed he will replace Fletcher Rooney on the right-wing.

Liam Horne is back in Tigers’ squad following a one-match ban and Luke Hooley and Jenson Windley are also included.

Hull KR: from Hiku, Evalds, Gildart, Hall, Lewis, Sue, Litten, King, Hadley, Batchelor, Minchella, Parcell, Luckley, Whitbread, Storton, Tanginoa, May, Burgess, Broadbent, Brown, Richardson.

Castleford Tigers: from Hooley, I Senior, Miller, Watts, Lawler, El-Zakhem, Mellor, Westerman, Horne, Milnes, Putt, Mustapha, Namo, Qareqare, Robb, Hill, Johnson, Rooney, Hindmarsh, Hoy, Windley.

Referee: Liam Rush (Mirfield). Kick-off: Friday, 8pm.