Leeds Rhinos’ Robert Lui feeling ‘better and better’ after recovering from Covid-19

A BOUT of coronavirus was a pre-season setback for Rob Lui, but Leeds Rhinos’ Australian stand-off says he is on the mend and determined to be available for next month’s Betfred Super League kick-off.
TROPHY HUNT: Robert Lui is keen to prove that Leeds’ Challenge Cup victory was the start of sustained success. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.TROPHY HUNT: Robert Lui is keen to prove that Leeds’ Challenge Cup victory was the start of sustained success. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.
TROPHY HUNT: Robert Lui is keen to prove that Leeds’ Challenge Cup victory was the start of sustained success. Picture: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com.

Lui was among approximately 18 players and staff members to have tested positive for Covid-19 since pre-season training began on January 5.

The outbreak led to Leeds’ training complex, at Kirkstall, being closed down for 11 days in an attempt to halt the virus’ spread.

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Pre-season has since resumed and though Lui had to go through a return to train protocol following his illness, he insisted he is “getting better and better” and raring to go in what is an important season for him and the team.

SILVERWARE: Leeds Rhinos' Rhyse Martin and Robert Lui (right) with the trophy after winning the Coral Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.SILVERWARE: Leeds Rhinos' Rhyse Martin and Robert Lui (right) with the trophy after winning the Coral Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.
SILVERWARE: Leeds Rhinos' Rhyse Martin and Robert Lui (right) with the trophy after winning the Coral Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire.

Individually, Lui is in the final year of the contract he signed when he joined Leeds from Salford Red Devils midway through 2019.

And as a squad and a club, Leeds’ challenge is to prove last year, when they won the Challenge Cup and finished fifth in Super League, was the start of something positive, rather than a flash in the pan after successive relegation struggles.

The timing of Leeds’ Covid outbreak, around two months before Super League’s opening round, was fortuitous, giving the squad enough time to prepare for their opening game without significant disruption to their schedule.

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But it was frustrating for Lui who recently moved with his family to Leeds after more than a year of commuting from his previous home in the Salford area.

A pre-existing condition meant he also had to take more care with his recovery than some of his teammates.

“I am asthmatic, though not that severe,” said the Queenslander, who will turn 31 next week.

“I was more vulnerable to shortage of breath with that and the headaches, but I have been getting my strength back.

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“I pretty much couldn’t taste anything, I wasn’t eating, but I am glad that’s over.

“I am happy we have moved over to Leeds, we have settled in okay and I just want to get stuck in, because the season is just around the corner.”

The return to train process allowed Lui time to observe how Leeds’ squad are faring and he feels the signs are good.

Rhinos are now half way through preparations for the new campaign, which begins against Wakefield Trinity at Emerald Headingley on Saturday, March 27 and Lui reported: “From watching the boys, the intensity is up there.

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“Everything is at speed and the young boys, in their second pre-season, they have got more confidence.

“They are first grade players and they have to show that to the coaches.

“They are keeping us older boys on our toes, which is good.”

Leeds’ management are excited about the potential of young players at the club, several of whom had a taste of Super League action last year when senior men were rested before and after big Cup ties.

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Lui is keen to pass on his experience to the next generation and also on the agenda is his future beyond the end of this season, though he is relaxed about entering the final year of his contract.

“I still don’t know what I am going to do,” said Lui.

“I will speak to my family and we’ll go from there.

“I am going to let my footy do the talking, I have got all faith in Leeds and all the young players coming through.

“This year I just want to teach those boys what I have learned over my years and, also, I want to win a few more trophies.”

The Challenge Cup, which Leeds won against his previous club at Wembley last October, was the first major honour of Lui’s career.

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But Rhinos were beaten by Catalans Dragons in the first round of the play-offs a month later and Lui admitted that still stings.

“The way we finished last year wasn’t the way we - as a playing group and as a club - wanted to finish,” he recalled.

“We did all the hard work, then to play like that against Catalans ... we have had a look at that game and it wasn’t a good feeling.

“That is going to be the drive for us in pre-season and during the season this year.”

“It is unfinished business.

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“We know what we want as a group and we have got the right people around us.”

Rhinos’ new Fijian signing King Vuniyayawa, who has been in quarantine since arriving in England last week, is due to train with the team for the first time today, if he returns a negative result in a Covid test.

New Zealand Test forward Zane Tetevano, the club’s only other off-season recruit, is expected to jet in from Australia early next week, along with 2020 player of the year Matt Prior.

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