Leeds Rhinos: Injury victim Carl Ablett targeting May return

Ablett suffered an ankle injury against this weekend’s visitors Hull KR in the Betfred Super-8s Qualifiers on September 1 and has not played since.

After surgery in January, he was named in the side to start away to Hull two months later, but dropped out after the warm-up.

He has since had another operation, making this one of the most frustrating spells of his 15-year Super League career, but is confident the surgery has done its job and he will be good to go when fully healed.

“I was expecting in January to go in and just have a bit of a clear out – clear out some bone and tissue,” Ablett revealed.

“I rehabbed really well, but something happened – it re-occurred – and obviously I couldn’t play against Hull.

“I tried to play, but it just didn’t progress for a few weeks so I went to see the surgeon again, had another scan and we decided there was something going on in there.

“It wasn’t quite clear so I had another operation.

“He really opened the ankle up and found a bit of a hole in the ankle capsule that wasn’t meant to be there.

“He tidied that up, cleared all the joint out and now it’s just a case of rehabbing it.”

Ablett had hoped to be back in action before now, but admitted: “Having two operations in the space of six weeks or so is not ideal.

“It has probably taken a little longer than I expected for it to settle down, but I just want to make sure it’s right.”

The 33-year-old, who made his Leeds debut in 2004 and has played 323 senior games for the club, signed a new two-year contract last November and insisted he is far from finished.

“It’s not like one of those long-standing injuries where it [the ankle] is degrading,” he confirmed.

“I know lads who play with dodgy knees and all the cartilage has gone.

“This is not the case and that’s probably more the frustrating thing.

“The surgeon the second time said the ankle looks really well, within the ankle.

“I just had an issue there with the capsule that had a hole in it.

“He said the ankle looks great so hopefully this time it has been fixed for good and I can get back out there.”

Ablett still has no definite timescale for when he will play again.

He added: “If you get injured and they give you a set time you accept it, but I am in a situation where I was told four to six weeks, then I had to wait a bit and I was struggling around that Hull game, not knowing what was going on.

“I’ve been out another seven weeks or so since then and I still don’t know when I’ll be back.

“I am playing it week by week, but I am really confident now it is all fixed inside there.

“It has been a while since I’ve played so it’ll just be a case now of building it up and hopefully in the next three weeks I should be there or thereabouts.”