Woolford fears Ta’ai is out for the season

HUDDERSFIELD Giants will find out today if Ukuma Ta’ai is out for the rest of the season.

The forward suffered an ankle injury in the Super League defeat to Warrington last time out.

Scans have shown he has damaged his lateral ligaments and the 33-yearold Tongan will see a specialist today to discover just how long he could be out for.

But Giants head coach Simon Woolford fears Ta’ai could be out for the rest of the campaign.

“He’s had a scan and it hasn’t come back great,” said Woolford, who is also without the injured Joe Wardle and Aaron Murphy.

“It’s pretty banged up. He’s seeing a specialist on Tuesday, but it’s safe to say that he’s going to be out longterm.

“Whether it’s for the season or not, that’s going to depend on what the specialist has to say,” Woolford told Total Rugby League.

The Giants have a hectic fixture list ahead, starting with Sunday’s clash with Hull FC.

“It’s not ideal,

particularly with what’s ahead of us with the fixture list,” added the Giants boss. “The fact we’ve had two close losses rather than two close wins means it really doesn’t help when you start losing bodies and all of a sudden we’ve got some backrowers on the sideline.”

Those two defeats have come against Leeds and Warrington in the two matches they have played since the restart.

And although they have put a dent in the Giants’ play-off hopes, Woolford believes his side are in a good place.

“I think anyone who has watched the games understands that we’re in pretty good shape,” he said.

“On one side we had an unassailable lead (against Leeds), but we did lose some players in quick succession and didn’t deal with it well. Then you look at the Warrington game and we still nearly got away with the game, despite everything that went against us.

“I believed at the start of the year we could compete at the top end of the table.

“Of course you need a bit of luck. We had a good run with those five games before the break and now we’ve had a bit of bad luck, but I think everyone can see clearly that we’re more than capable of being at the top end.”

Meanwhile, Murphy looks set to leave end his nine-season spell with the Giants to take up a deal with Bradford Bulls.

The 31-year-old has made 176 Super League appearances, scoring 71 tries.