I’ll come back even stronger from injury setback - Leeds Rhinos’ Kruise Leeming

A stress fracture in a foot isn’t ideal, but I feel quite lucky not to have had too many setbacks up to now and I know it would be naive to think I could go through a full career without anything serious cropping up.

I am in good spirits and buzzing after the win over Wigan.

The disappointing part, obviously, is not being able to be on the pitch, help the boys and contribute to the scoreline, but when they win like that it is so much easier to be out injured.

You don’t feel like you’ve let anyone down, which you do if it’s a loss.

I feel guilty if we lose and I don’t play, so it is a lot easier being injured when the team win.

That said, it’s not the same feeling after a victory if you haven’t played.

I’m always delighted for the lads, the fans and the club, but it feels even better when you have put in the effort and contributed to the win.

But the whole place is a lot nicer after a good result, the changing room’s a lot better, the week passes that bit quicker and your injury feels like it’s getting there.

I am in a boot at the moment so I can walk around and I am doing a lot of swimming and upper body work in the gym.

I am training as hard as I can and my aim is to come back in better nick than I was before the injury.

I am in good spirits and - apart from my foot - good shape.

In four weeks’ time I’ll get the boot off, hopefully be back running and then straight into it.

The fitness and game speed is what stops you, so I am going to keep myself super fit and hopefully I can get the last two or three league games and then push into the play-offs.

I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I’m confident I can do that.

I’m looking forward to being back on the field, but there’s plenty you can do when you’re injured.

It’s not all doom and gloom and I am looking at the positive side.

One of the things I am doing is mentoring Jarrod O’Connor, who has been playing in my position.

I’ve been watching games with him and watching him train and I want to pass on as much knowledge as I can.

I am not taking any credit, but Jarrod has been going really well and I’m pleased for him.

He had a fantastic game against Wigan and it’s good to see a young lad like him getting to grips with first-team rugby.

There’s no better time than the present and I think when you reach 21, like he just has, it is something you should be aspiring to - pushing into the first team and getting regular game time.

He has got a good opportunity and I am really happy for him.

We are quite close, we spend a lot of time together and he is a hard worker.

It’s always good to see someone put in a lot of effort and then get the reward for it.

He did that against Wigan, which was great for him and his family and us as a club.

There’s also things I can do to get better myself.

I have been analysing my own game and watching more rugby, because I am not involved as much.

I’m always looking at ways I can improve my game and it’s good to look at it from a spectator’s point of view, which isn’t a lens I get to look through very often.

There are upsides to being injured - not many, but you have to make the most of any little positives you can find.

I’ll sign off this week by thanking all the fans who turned up and gave us such fantastic support last Thursday night.

Being away from home for so long, we have missed that and it just highlighted what a special thing we have at Headingley, how grateful we are to get that backing and how much they help as well.

If that game had been played in lockdown, with no fans, who knows what the scoreline might have been?

But when we got on top, the fans got louder and louder, you could see the Wigan team’s heads go down and we ran away with it.

The Leeds fans have always been fantastic, but I think they were on a little bit extra alert last week, which we appreciated.