Matt Prior due back at Leeds Rhinos next week - Kevin Sinfield explains player of the year's delayed return

Prior has been on a break in Australia since the end of last year, but is booked on a Monday flight and due to land the following day.

He will then go into quarantine for five days, at the hotel inside Headingley Stadium, before returning to training if he provides a negative test for Covid-19.

The Australian prop had originally been expected to return, alongside new signing Zane Tetevano, this week, but was delayed for family reasons.

Sinfield conceded the past year has been tough for overseas recruits, who had to endure lockdown in this country before returning home to a Covid-free Australian summer, where they have been following reports of the UK’s second wave of the pandemic via the media.

But he stressed Prior is “fully committed” to Rhinos and predicted the front-rower’s partnership with Tetevano will add “real steel” to the forward pack when the season kicks off next month.

“Matty is booked on a flight on Monday and will be in the country on Tuesday,” Sinfield said.

“The delay was purely family reasons. We have been as compassionate, sensitive and caring as a club as we can be.

“We have tried to support and help, but if I am honest, we were waiting on what Boris [Johnson, the Prime Minister] said on Monday [about a roadmap out of lockdown].

“That was really important for a lot of overseas players who were looking on and deciding whether it was right for them to come back to the UK with their families, but I am delighted to say Matt will be here on Tuesday.”

Sinfield described Prior’s impact on Leeds last year, his first season following a move from Cronulla Sharks, as “wonderful”.

He added: “It was always our plan that Zane would team up with Matty, along with some other wonderful front-rowers we’ve got and we felt with those two leading our pack, with that experience, they’d give us a real hard edge and a real steel about us.”

Asked if there was ever a danger of Prior not returning, Sinfield said: “It is probably unfair to disclose it.

“Matty is very quiet and unassuming and I have actually spoken to him more in the last four-six weeks than in the last 12 months.

“We have been completely honest with each other and the club has done everything it could to make it a lot more comfortable for when Matty gets back.

“Yes, there has been a little bit of concern, but we have worked through it the best way we can. These are part of the challenges - in normal circumstances these conversations would not have taken place, Matty would have been here. I absolutely know he is fully committed and he absolutely wants to play for the club. I think he will actually come on his own to start with and the family will follow later on.”

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