Castleford Tigers hit by lengthy injury blow as five players sidelined for Super League clash against Hull FC

Richardson sustained the injury in the Tigers' opening game of the Super League season with head coach Lee Radford confirming he is set to miss the next three months of action.

That starts with Castleford's league clash against Hull FC on Sunday, with the Wheldon Road club still searching for their first win under Radford.

“I think Danny is going to be 11-12 weeks," confirmed Radford.

“He is in a neck brace at the moment, so it is pretty long term. There is a bone fracture in there and it is eight weeks with a brace on then, past that, you’ve got to strengthen everything up in and around there.

"In round one, it wasn’t the news Danny or the club wanted, but it’s the cards we’ve been dealt and we’ll have to be more reliant on Jake Trueman and Gaz O’Brien to grab the team by the horns and get us around the field.”

Forward Adam Milner is also struggling with a back problem he picked up in pre-season and Radford admits it is hard to put a timescale on the player's return.

“We are still struggling with Adam,” he added. “He went to see a specialist [on Tuesday] so it is just a guessing game and a matter of time.

“It’s frustrating because he’d had a really good pre-season and he did it a fortnight before the season started.

“We probably need him right now, to jump in at nine for a period and obviously 13 as well.

“They are all frustrating but, when you see someone have such a good pre-season, it definitely is.”

Castleford will also be without Bureta Faraimo and prop Liam Watts after the pair were both suspended by the match review panel this week while Jacques O’Neill remains sidelined.