New deal for King crowns Hull semi-final challenge

Hull have re-signed their Great Britain forward Paul King for another two years. Although he will miss Sunday's Carnegie Challenge Cup semi-final against Wakefield due to the foot injury that has kept him out since March, the club have underlined his long-term importance to their pack by offering him the new contract.

King is part of a shrinking injury list at Hull. For the semi-final at Doncaster, they have Todd Byrne, Adam Dykes, Gareth Raynor and Garreth Carvell all available again, which means they are likely to field their strongest team all season.

Wakefield are expected to have Ryan Atkins fit again, while Tevita Leo-Latu is a possible Wildcat wild card on the bench. Their coach, John Kear, like Hull's Richard Agar, will name his squad today, but yesterday he shrugged off Wakefield's woeful form since qualifying for the semi-final as irrelevant.

Leeds have Brent Webb back in their squad to face St Helens in the other semi-final at Huddersfield tomorrow after the New Zealand full-back missed last weekend's trip to the Catalan Dragons.

Saints have agreed a new, one-year contract with their Australian Test centre Matt Gidley, whose combination with Super League's leading try-scorer Ade Gardner is one of the side's great strengths.

Huddersfield have confirmed that the Australian prop John Skandalis has played his last game for the club. He has had a knee operation that will keep him out of action until the end of his two-year contract in October.

Huddersfield are at Wigan tonight for a Super League match postponed from last month because of pitch repairs at the JJB Stadium. Cameron Phelps has been added to the Wigan squad after initially being left out by mistake and Tim Smith will make his debut.