Tony Smith says Hull FC’s injured contingent of players are making good progress with their individual rehabilitation programmes ahead of the start of the 2023 Betfred Super League season.
The Black & Whites will feature in their first pre-season friendly against Sheffield Eagles on Sunday afternoon, with Smith providing an encouraging update on those in the treatment room.
“Nothing has changed too much in the last few weeks. Carlos [Tuimavave] is not quite ready for this one and Jake Trueman will still be unavailable for a number of weeks,” he said.
“Kane Evans is not far away. He’s getting really close, along with Andre Savelio.
“Everyone else is on schedule with their recoveries, as well. The only update since Christmas is that Connor Wynne has suffered an ankle injury.
“Connor got a twist of the ankle that is going to cause him five to six, maybe seven weeks of recuperation, which is not ideal for both parties. But these things happen when you get into contact in training.
“Jamie Shaul has also picked up a slight calf injury, although he’ll be back in running again next week. We’ve just had to take him out of running this week, which is a real shame for him because he’s been training terrifically. He’s been ripping it up and recording best-evers in tests, so we’ll be working to get him right and he’ll more than likely be good to go for the Wakefield game.”
The Airlie Birds will head to Olympic Legacy Park for their first match under Tony Smith, with the former England coach looking forward to giving plenty of his squad members the chance to impress.
However, on top of those unavailable for selection through injury, Smith has also revealed he will rest two senior players for the trip to South Yorkshire.
“We’ll pretty much give a considerable amount of game time to the whole squad this weekend. There’s just two senior players that are fit that I’m not going to play,” he said.
“One of those is Ligi Sao, and he’s not going to play because he played right through to the final game of the World Cup.
“The other is Liam Sutcliffe, who played right through to the Grand Final with Leeds.
“Those two won’t be called upon this weekend but they’ll certainly get some game time against Wakefield.”
STORY SPONSOR
