Leeds Rhinos boss issues Justin Sangare injury update, explains Jarrod O'Connor captaincy confusion

Justin Sangare was a try scorer for Rhinos in their Super League round one loss at Warrington. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.

Sangare will miss Thursday’s Betfred Super League fixture at Warrington Wolves after suffering damage to a foot in the big win over Huddersfield Giants six days earlier.

He joins another front-rower, Zane Tetevano, on the casualty list, but prop Tom Holroyd is set to return following a calf muscle injury and three-quarter Nene Macdonald is back in the 21-man squad after concussion.

“He’s not too bad,” Smith said of the French international. “He has got a bit of a, relatively minor, plantar fascia injury. He will be out one, two or three weeks maybe. We will see how it settles.”

Corey Johnson is likely to continue as replacement hooker for Rhinos at Warrington this week. Picture by John Clifton/SWpix.com.

Loose-forward Cameron Smith is in Rhinos’ 21-man despite suffering what the coach described as a “bump to a knee” in last week’s game.

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“He is still a doubt,” Rohan Smith confirmed. “He hasn’t trained yet this week, but we will see how he is tomorrow [Wednesday] on our last team run and see if he is going to be able to do a job on Thursday.”

Smith said starting with Corey Johnson at hooker and moving Jarrod O’Connor to loose-forward would be “an option” if the number 13 missed out.

Jarroid O'Conor, with ball, had a brief taste of captaincy last week, when Cameron Smith, right, was off the field. Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com.

But he stated: “That’s unlikely to be the case if Cam’s no good. I like what Corey has been doing, coming off the bench at the back end of games. That’s probably where he will feature.”

With Rhinos not having a full-time captain this year, Cameron Smith and Ash Handley have been sharing duties on the field, but referee Ben Thaler called O’Connor over as Leeds’ spokesman following a minor set-to in last week’s match.

Rohan Smith said: “Jarrod is a leader, but I am not sure what happened there, whether he was just the nearest bloke, or maybe Ash just didn’t fancy running in from the wing to have a chat about not much.

“Ash and Cam are our leaders out there at the moment, but Jarrod had a moment that brought a chuckle in review, that’s for sure.”