Workington Town have given some boosts ahead of their tough Betfred Championship assignment at home to powerful Featherstone Rovers.
Declan O’Donnell is ready for his third stint at Town after returning recently from London Broncos and after sitting-out the first two games will be a welcome and popular inclusion in the squad.
Also back, after sitting out games through suspension are forwards Marcus O’Brien and Perry Singleton and they will give coach Chris Thorman more options up-front where Featherstone are particularly strong.
But there is a downside tomorrow. Thorman will be without record-breaking goal-kicker Carl Forber and recent Ike Southward Memorial Trophy hero Matty Henson, both of whom were injured in last week’s 70-18 defeat at Widnes.
Featherstone travel to Cumbria on the back of two victories, the second a highly significant 28-6 home win over Leigh, their likely title rivals, on Monday.
But they did pick up injuries in that game and Town won’t have to face either centre Joey Leilu or second row Josh Hardcastle who are not in the 21-man squad but started against Leigh.
Leiliu is probabnly the biggest signing ever made by a Championship club with a successful career in the NR: for Sydney Roosters, Newcastle Knights, Canberra Raiders and Wests Tigers. In total he clocked up 225 appearances for those clubs as well as 15 games for Samoa.
He had gone into the Leigh game looking for two touchdowns to take him to a career total of 100 but had not registered before he was injured.
Town squad: Barnes, Bickerdike, Brown, Clegg, Clarke, Dawson, Doran, Fitzsimmons, Hutchings, Lightowler, O’Brien, O’Donnell, Olstrom, Postlethwaite, Singleton, Steele, Teare, Thomas, Thomson, Walker, Young.
Featherstone squad: Pickersgill, Briscoe, Hall, Gale, Holmes, Chisholm, Jones, Lockwood, Ferres, Bussey, Wilde, Davies, Moors, Hellewell, Field, Smith, Cooper, Trout, MConnell, Gill and Cuthbertson.
