Castleford Tigers' Paul McShane facing 'open-ended' time off with operation outcome key

Castleford Tigers will not put a timescale on Paul McShane's injury layoff, with the timescale of his absence 'open-ended' ahead of an operation. The former Man of Steel will go to hospital on Friday to have pins and plates removed from his arm, with the findings set to determine his future.

McShane has seen his game time restricted by injury this year, missing the start of the season with a hamstring injury while he missed the defeat to Leeds Rhinos due to a further setback.

His current issue relates to the arm injury he suffered last year, which resulted in him having the pins and plates inserted. However, complications from that have caused the current issues. Friday's operation will give specialists a better understanding of the issue, which will then determine his return to action.

“The specialists aren’t sure what they are going to find until they get in there," head coach Craig Lingard said. "It is a case of it might be two or three weeks, or it might be season-ending. We won’t really know until he has had the operation. Obviously, we are hoping for weeks rather than the season, but we are prepared for either eventuality.

“When he broke his arm last year, he had pins and plates inserted and something has happened at some point since then, and some of the pins have come out. The bone has calcified around the pins and plates as well.

“The only reason he found out was because it started swelling, he had a bit of an infection in his arm. If it hadn’t been for that, he would probably have cracked on as normal thinking it was the usual sort of wear and tear you get through a contact sport. It’s fortunate for him he got the infection and went and had an x-ray which identified what needed to be identified.”

Joe Westerman, another key player, will also miss the game as a result of the Achilles injury he suffered against Leeds Rhinos. “He has had a scan this week and there’s no significant damage in there,” Lingard added. “It’s just managing him now and getting him back to some sort of full fitness where he can train and get through games.

“We had a week off last week which obviously helped and he’ll be off again this week which will hopefully help him get back to training next week. We are hopeful he will be available for the Hull KR game, but we don’t want to risk him because we’ve got a week off after that one. If he needs that extended break to get him back fit and raring to go for the last part of the season, we’ll do that.”