Ablett faces long spell on sidelines

The 24-year-old, who missed only one match last season and has been a member of each of the Rhinos' last three Grand Final-winning sides, limped off in the early stages of last Friday's 24-10 home defeat by Castleford.

He is now set to be sidelined for eight to 10 weeks adding to the problems of coach Brian McClennan who is also without new signing Brett Delaney for Sunday's trip to Wakefield.

The Australian, who has impressed ,scoring tries in each of his first two appearances since joining from Gold Coast Titans, will miss the next two matches with a knee injury also suffered against Castleford.

It could make him a doubt for the Rhinos' World Club Challenge with Melbourne Storm in a fortnight.

Kallum Watkins and Ian Kirke are now looking to make the most of their chance against the Wildcats if, as expected, they are drafted into McClennan's squad.

Hull KR forward Clint Newton expects his old Melbourne mentor Michael Maguire to have a plan to deal with him when he comes up against his Wigan side tonight.

Newton, a member of the 2009 Engage Super League Dream Team, won the NRL Grand Final with Melbourne in 2007 under Maguire, the new Warriors boss, and head coach Craig Bellamy and knows he will come under close scrutiny at the DW Stadium.

"Michael will have already targeted a number of players in our side and I'm probably one of them – it'll be good to see what he comes up with," said Newton. "He is a coach for the modern age. He was the unsung hero at Melbourne. Craig and Steve Kearney got the plaudits but they all worked well together.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting up with him and looking forward to Wigan doing well for him."

Maguire enjoyed a winning start when the Warriors demolished Crusaders 38-6 at the DW Stadium last Friday and Newton expects him to go on to make a big impact in Super League.

"I was really excited for him when he got the job," he added. "He will make big changes there, the biggest of which will be trying to bring the squad together.

"I think he has already started to do that by scrapping the captaincy and bringing in a five-man leadership group. That is something we did at Melbourne.

"He knows that it keeps people fresh and, if someone who was previously your captain is out sick, you don't miss him as much as you have other leaders.

"He will try and delegate a lot of tasks throughout that five-man group and that's credit to him."