Leeds Rhinos: Richard Agar cancels players’ day off to focus fully on “mental challenges”

Rhinos return to action at home to Castleford Tigers on Thursday and interim coach Richard Agar said they needed to put the Bulls defeat behind them as quickly as possible.

“We cancelled their day off [on Sunday] and decided to bring them in,” Agar confirmed. “There’s no way we could let that run into this week on such a short turnaround.

“We got them in on their day off and went through a lot of parts of the game.”

Marquee centre Konrad Hurrell suffered a recurrence on a hamstring strain on his return from three games out and is doubtful for this week’s derby. Agar will name his initial 19-man squad today and said: “It will be a struggle for him to make this one, but we are not ruling it out just yet.”

There were no other injuries from Saturday’s Challenge Cup game and Agar added: “Physically we are all good, but obviously mentally it is a challenge this week.”

Prop Brad Singleton did not feature at Odsal, but is set to return on Thursday.

“He had a lot of football over the last four games and played a lot of minutes,” Agar said.

“He had a couple of bumps and we thought a week off would help him.

“We left Richie Myler out at the weekend and he will be back in contention.”

Myler was replaced by Callum McLelland against Bulls and the teenager could make his Betfred Super League debut against his former club.

“We had no good ball,” Agar said of the Cup defeat. “From Callum’s point of view it was a very difficult performance to play number seven in.”

Prop Dom Crosby, who has not played this year, has undergone another knee operation and is facing a longer spell on the sidelines.