Esan Marsters set for long lay-off in major blow to Huddersfield Giants' fading play-off hopes

Marsters picked up the issue in Huddersfield's defeat at Catalans Dragons before the international break and is set to miss the majority of the run-in, which begins with a trip to Warrington Wolves on Friday night.

The 27-year-old, who will join Salford Red Devils at the end of the year, has scored six tries in 17 games this season as one of Ian Watson's standout performers.

It is a further blow for Watson who has also seen Ashton Golding and Sam Hewitt join a casualty list that is headed by top tryscorer Adam Swift.

"Esan is out for a fair while," said Watson.

"It could be up to eight weeks but it depends on how it heals. He's in a brace at the minute so we'll see where that gets to.

"He's done a meniscus and MCL-type injury. He did it in the game and tried to continue on as we were getting a flow to us in the second half. He tried to push through it but got a knock and couldn't get back up from that.

"Ash Golding has got a bit of a twinge and Sam Hewitt is a concussion one.

"We've had a few issues to come out of the Catalans game but it's what you've got to deal with."

Huddersfield have had to contend with a bout of illness since returning from Perpignan.

Watson is hoping there are no lasting effects at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, although he must check on one unnamed player before the Giants make the trip across the M62.

"I don't know what it is but every time we come back from Catalans we seem to pick up a fair few colds and bugs out of the ordinary that we've not seen for a while," he added.

"A lot of players were very ill last week and that's spilt over into this week as well.

"We're keeping our fingers crossed that everybody is alright. We'll probably have one last-minute call but hopefully we should be OK other than that."

Jake Connor, who has not started a game since the Challenge Cup semi-final defeat to Warrington and last featured in May, is an option at centre but Watson has instead opted for Jake Bibby.

The Giants boss was coy on Connor's prospects of returning in the spine.

"We'll see," said Watson, who has also included rookie full-back Aidan McGowan in his squad following his recall from Bradford Bulls.

"We've had a tough time and Jake has had a tough time. Everybody gets those ups and downs.

"The one thing I will say is that he's had his head down and has been working hard."

On Connor potentially going out on loan, Watson added: "Jake is our player and we brought him to Huddersfield to play and be a part of this squad.

"You can never say never but he's one of our players and we've had no enquiries this week."

Huddersfield head into the final 12 games with a six-point gap to bridge to the top six after losing six of their previous seven matches.

Watson conceded that the play-offs are a long shot unless the Giants find consistency.

"What we need to do is play like we did in the first half against Hull KR and in the second half against Catalans to start to string 80-minute performances together," he said.

"The one thing you can see from us is that we're very inconsistent at the moment. One minute we look like nobody is troubling us and we're in control then at other times it looks like we don't know each other.

"When we've backed each other and played to our strengths, we've been good in those games. That's the really difficult thing.

"We're not stringing the consistent performances together that you need to be classed as a top-six team."

Huddersfield saved one of their worst performances of the season for the semi-final drubbing at the hands of Warrington.

Watson has not used the memory of that painful afternoon in St Helens as motivation ahead of the first league meeting between the sides this year.

"They embarrassed us a little bit in the semi-final," he said.

"We put a hell of a lot into the Challenge Cup run to reach the final and came away from that game embarrassed and not happy with the way we performed.

"That was a cup game and this is a league game. We need to focus on the here and now rather than look back too much on what happened then.

"You'll learn from a few things but we need to attack this as a new game."