Kear calls on part-timers as injury list grows

The worrying increase in injuries in Super League will be graphically illustrated by Wakefield's depleted ranks at Huddersfield this evening. The Wildcats have no less than 11 potential first-teamers on their casualty list and Adam Watene has gone home to New Zealand following a family bereavement.

That has forced John Kear, the coach, to register two part-timers from the reserve side. They are the loose forward and captain Mike Emmitt and the 18-year-old three-quarter Josh Griffin, whose elder brother, Darrell, is in Huddersfield's squad. "All our family will be at the game, so if he makes the team it will be a special occasion for them," said the elder Griffin, a former Wakefield player.

Huddersfield will still be without their contingent of former Wigan internationals – David Hodgson, Martin Aspinwall and Stephen Wild – but their coach, Jon Sharp, is hopeful that Shane Elford and Rob Jensen will be fit to return.

Paul Deacon is out of Bradford's side to visit Hull Kingston Rovers tomorrow. The Great Britain scrum-half had surgery on a cartilage in his knee on Monday and will miss the next two games. That could mean a return to the starting line-up for Iestyn Harris, who has been operating, successfully, as a replacement hooker in the last few games.

The Bulls have been performing well in recent weeks and their pack will have a familiar look tomorrow with the return of David Solomona and Glenn Morrison and the end of Terry Newton's suspension.

The former Brisbane Broncos winger Tame Tupou is also fit to stake his claim for a starting place that he has not really tied down since his arrival in this country.

Rovers' coach, Justin Morgan, has included his leading try-scorer, Jake Webster, in his squad after he missed last week's defeat at Harlequins, one of a depressing run of results that has seen the Robins drop out of the top six.

In National League One, coachless Leigh go to Sheffield Eagles while Halifax will try to keep pace with the leaders when they take on Featherstone Rovers at The Shay. Celtic Crusaders – like Leigh, Halifax and Featherstone a club with Super League aspirations – are at Whitehaven.

Leeds have taken the latter club's 17-year-old scrum-half Greg McNally on a month's trial.