Castleford Tigers hit by Ryan Hampshire injury blow but have stars back for Challenge Cup tie at Leeds Rhinos

Ryan Hampshire was injured playing or the reserves in his first game back with Castleford Tigers.

Hampshire was brought in last week to add competition for places in the backs, but he will not be able to do so for a while now after being injured in his first game back with the Tigers.

Head coach Lee Radford said: “He is devastated, it’s probably going to be six-eight weeks.

“He sees a specialist (today) and if we can get him back earlier it will be a massive boost.”

Radford said that Hampshire would have been in contention for a place in the Cas team for the sixth-round Betfred Challenge Cup tie against local rivals Leeds Rhinos on Saturday.

A number of first team stars have returned to the 21-man squad for the game, however.

Adam Milner is in contention to be involved in his first match of the 2022 season following a back injury, while Liam Watts and Alex Sutcliffe are also in the running to be in the starting line-up after missing out at Wigan last week.

Although he fractured his hand in the match against Huddersfield and was feared to be set for a long spell out, Jordan Turner looks to have made a remarkable recovery and could feature on Saturday.

Full-back Niall Evalds and forward Nathan Massey are also in line to make their first appearances since the Tigers’ clash at Hull KR a month ago.

Brad Martin will miss the tie after receiving a two-match suspension following his sending off at Wigan while Cheyse Blair is unavailable after suffering a hand injury at Wigan.

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