Beleagured Giants boss Paul Anderson has admitted his thin Super League XXI squad is set to be tested to the full at Salford on Friday night.
Second-bottom Huddersfield’s place in the Middle 8s will be confirmed if they’re beaten by the Red Devils at the AJ Bell Stadium.
Already without prop Craig Huby (shoulder), his front row colleague Daniel Smith (foot) and new second row signing Sebastine Ikahihifo (broken jaw), winger Aaron Murphy could also be counted out after suffering a head wound in the home defeat to Wakefield Trinity.
The Giants troubles could be eased as they appear to be on the verge of confirming the signing of second row Tom Symonds from Australian NRL club Manly.
However, even though Anderson continues to have complete faith in his players, he knows that in the wake of Sunday’s bitterly-disappointing 10-2 home defeat to Wakefield it’s going to take a major change in fortunes to guarantee a big finish to 2016.
“The one thing we’ve got to do is get some belief back into what we’re doing,” said Anderson.
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
“But we know we’re facing a tough time.
“It’s fair to say we’re seriously down on troops at the moment, and we could be one or two more down after the Wakefield game. We’re in need of some people back pretty soon, there’s no doubt about that.
“The short turnaround to the Salford game means we won’t be seeing Aaron Murphy (who suffered a nasty scalp wound against Wakefield), and we’ll have to wait and see about one or two of the other blokes.
“But things definitely don’t get any easier for us.”
