Ex-Leeds Rhinos man Luke Hooley 'big part' of Castleford Tigers' future despite Featherstone Rovers loan

Hooley, who joined Tigers from Rhinos in pre-season on a two-year deal, will spend the next fortnight with Castleford’s Betfred Championship neighbours as he regains match fitness. He faces competition for his Super League place from recent signing Tex Hoy, but Lingard insisted: “Luke is here for next year.”

Explaining the loan move, Lingard said: “He has missed the last five weeks or so with a shoulder injury he got in the Challenge Cup game at Batley and we brought Tex in last week and he played really well in the London game. He has kept the shirt this week. Luke needs to go out and play, he needs some game time after his time out and he was keen to do that because he is conscious of not having played for a while.”

Hoy’s future beyond this season is yet to be decided, but Lingard stressed: “We are planning on Luke being here next year; regardless of what happens this year with Tex we see Luke as being a big part of our future at Castleford. That has got to work for both parties, if Luke feels he wants to look elsewhere we’ll have to have that conversation, but as of yet we’ve not had any conversations in respect of Luke leaving.”

Lingard will select his side for Saturday’s game at Leigh Leopards from the 17 who beat London, plus George Griffin, Josh Hodson, Danny Richardson and Samy Kibula. On-loan prop Sam Eseh has returned to Wigan Warriors without playing a game for Tigers, after picking up a hamstring problem in the final training session ahead of last week’s 40-0 win.

“I think Wigan are looking at trying to get him some game time in their reserves just to ease him back into some sort of full fitness,” Lingard reported. “He’s had eight-10 weeks out injured so it’s important his recovery and return to play is right for him and we are happy for him to go back to Wigan to get that recovery and rehabilitation he needs.”

The coach wouldn't rule out former Wakefield Trinity man Eseh returning to Tigers at some stage. He added: “Matt Peet [Wigan’s coach] said if and when he’s ready to go out on loan to get some game time we’ll have that conversation, but that’ll depend where we are with bodies at that particular time.

“We’ve got a few middles coming back so it might be we don’t need anybody at that moment in time but will reassess that situation as and when it arises.”

Tigers will look to pick up from where they left off when they visit Leigh. Lingard said: “That’s the challenge. We’ve talked all season about trying to get 50 per cent of the possession and seeing where we are once we do that.

“We had 55 per cent last week and it’s certainly easier playing the game when you get at least half of the possession. Previously we’ve had to defend two-thirds of the time and it’s really difficult then to maintain that intensity all the way through the game.

“We scored quite a lot of points last week and defensively looked a lot fresher. That plays a big part in it. Sometimes people might say we don’t look fit, but it’s difficult to look fit when you’re defending two-thirds of the time. Our challenge every week is trying to get 50 per cent of the possession and if we do that this week we’ll put ourselves in a good position to back up last week’s game against London.”

Castleford Tigers (at Leigh, 5.30pm Saturday): from Wood, I Senior, Richardson, Miller, Watts, McShane, El Zakhem, Mellor, Westerman, Horne, Griffin, Milnes, Hodson, S Hall, Robb, Martin, Kibula, Hill, L Senior, Hoy C Hall.