Castleford Tigers: Danny Richardson may never fully recover from neck fracture, reveals Lee Radford

SCRUM-HALF Danny Richardson may never fully recover from the neck fracture he suffered at the start of this season, his Castleford Tigers coach Lee Radford has revealed.

Richardson stepped back on to the pitch last weekend for a reserves fixture against Leeds Rhinos, three months after suffering the horrific injury in Tigers’ opening game of the season, a home defeat by Salford Red Devils.

Castleford travel to Salford for the rematch on Friday and Radford revealed Richardson is “in contention”.

He said: “He came through the [reserves] game all good.

Castelford's Danny Richardson is stopped by Salford's James Greenwood back in Frbruary.  Picture: Bruce RollinsonCastelford's Danny Richardson is stopped by Salford's James Greenwood back in Frbruary.  Picture: Bruce Rollinson
Castelford's Danny Richardson is stopped by Salford's James Greenwood back in Frbruary. Picture: Bruce Rollinson
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“I thought he was good; it was a difficult day for him, the standard probably wasn’t very high, but I thought how he communicated with the blokes around him was a compliment to him.”

Of Richardson’s injury, Radford revealed: “It is still a bad one, it has not healed – the bone has not reattached, so when you see it on x-ray you grimace a little bit.

“But the specialist has said ‘look, it’s never going to heal 
now’, so it is a case of crack on, almost.”

Radford said: “It has been a long time, the neck brace was a struggle for him and when you’ve got that on you’re not doing anything physically so all your mass disappears.

“But he is up and running, he has looked good in training and he has got a spring in his step,” he added.

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