Leeds Rhinos: Keinhorst to find out extent of knee injury today

The German international was hurt in Rhinos’ 23-6 defeat at Widnes Vikings eight days ago and a scan the following afternoon confirmed a tear to the medial meniscus cartilage.

The 27-year-old – who scored a match-winning hat-trick on his recall to the side against Hull KR last month – could be facing around two months on the sidelines, but is hopeful of being fit and available for the second half of the season.

“I was due to see the surgeon last week, but that was cancelled because of the weather,” Keinhorst said.

“I am going to see him [today] and he will explain what he is going to do.

“It might need cutting out, or a bit of trimming off or he might be able to repair it. It is up to him.”

This is not a new experience for the former Otley Rugby Union Club and Leeds Metropolitan University player, who is in his seventh season with Rhinos.

“I had a similar one back in 2012,” he said.

“That time around they had to trim a bit of cartilage off, but I am not sure what the recovery time was because it was towards the back end of the season.

“It was one of the last games and it went into our pre-season.

“It may be a couple of months, it is not great at all, but it is what it is.

“Hopefully I will have a decent chunk of the season to play in and be part of when I get back to fitness.”

Keinhorst also spent a long spell on the sidelines last year after suffering a serious hand injury.

“That was after a few more games, but I missed a decent chunk of the season with that,” he recalled.

“Hopefully it won’t be as long this time, but I will definitely miss a few.

“I don’t know what the recovery time will be until after the operation and what the surgeon does to it.”

Keinhorst’s was the latest injury suffered by a Rhinos player in a game on Widnes’ artificial surface.

Notoriously, Tom Briscoe, Ashton Golding and Carl Ablett were hurt in a 15-minute spell there two years ago, but Keinhorst does not blame the pitch for his setback.

“It happened early in the second half, not in contact,” he said. “I was just running and I caught my foot on the top of the pitch – basically how it happened last time.

“I don’t think it was anything to do with the pitch, I’ve never had a problem with playing on it, though the pitch is in a bit of a poor state at the moment.

“It has lost a bit of quality from what it started with.”

Keinhorst played on for the full game and admitted: “It wasn’t the easiest, I couldn’t straighten my leg and there was a bit of pain there.

“I carried on and did what I could and it didn’t feel all that bad, but I knew something wasn’t right. Andy [Barker, Rhinos’ physio] came on and checked it out. He was happy for me to carry on, but he checked it after the game and said I’d better go for a scan to see what’s going on.”

The timing is particularly bad for Keinhorst. He said: “Obviously I missed the first game of the year and due to injury [to Joel Moon] I got myself back in there. It seems to be a familiar story, it’s bitterly disappointing and with the injuries we’ve got at the moment it is not great timing.

“It is the last year of my contract and I need to be playing. I’ll have to get myself back in the best shape I can and hopefully there’ll be a decent amount of the season to go and I can give a decent account of myself.”

Keinhorst said his future beyond this year is “undecided”. He added: “I want to play for Leeds, but I don’t know what role they see me in.

“I’ve not really spoken to them much about that yet.”