Injury to ex-Leeds Rhinos player leaves Castleford Tigers' 'backs to the wall'

Former Leeds Rhinos prop Muizz Mustapha is set for a spell on the sidelines with knee damage and coach Craig Lingard revealed one of his 21-man squad failed a fitness test this morning (Thursday), ruling him out of tomorrow’s Betfred Super League round four clash.

“Muizz has picked up a PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) injury in training,” Lingard confirmed at today’s weekly preview press conference. “He has had to see a specialist and it isn’t going to be a week or two - we are looking at weeks on end, depending on the outcome of the specialist’s report.

“Somebody else who’s in the 21 has failed a fitness test today; we have 10 unavailable players so it’s backs to the wall at the moment, but we are dealing with it as best we can and we are confident in what we’ve got and the 17 who’ll go out on the field.”

Prop Sylvester Namo, who has not played since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury last June, has been named in Tigers’ initial squad for the first time. Lingard said the Papua New Guinean, signed from Australian club Townsville Blackhawks, will feature in Saturday’s reserves fixture at Huddersfield if he doesn’t make his Super League debut tomorrow.

Charbel Taisale, Cain Robb, Albert Vete and Brad Martin are all included in the initial 21 after not playing in last week’s defeat at Warrington Wolves and Lingard is hopeful Tigers’ injury list will soon begin to ease. He declined to reveal the identity of the player who failed a fitness test during Thursday’s captain’s run, but said: “He won’t be out too long, maybe a couple of weeks. We aren’t too far off getting people back.

“Liam Watts (suspended) misses this week and next week, but we’re looking at getting Paul McShane (hamstring) back in the next couple of weeks. Danny Richardson (concussion and illness) might be another week or two and Josh Hodson (foot) is expected to be back in the next couple of weeks as well. Josh Griffin had an operation last week and he’s looking at a five-week return to play, but we are hoping in the next month or so - if we don’t get any more injuries in the meantime - we should have a much fuller and fitter squad to choose from.”

Though Tigers go into round four without a win, Lingard reckons there have been encouraging signs. He said: “It’s about doing it for longer. We have had periods in every game when we’ve done some positive stuff, but in every game we’ve had a period that has hurt us.”

Castleford Tigers: from Hooley, Simm, Broadbent, Wood, Senior, Miller, Lawler, El-Zakhem, Mellor, Westerman, Horne, Milnes, Putt, Hall, Namo, Tasipale, Robb, Martin, Kibula, Vete, Johnson.

Huddersfield Giants: from Connor, Swift, Marsters, Naiqama, Lolohea, Clune, Hill, Murchie, Hewitt, Yates, Golding, Rushton, Wilson, Ikahihifo, Deakin, Wallis, Cudjoe, Livett, Russell, Halsall, Salabio.

Referee: Liam Moore (Wigan). Kick-off: Friday, 8pm.