Huddersfield Giants boss Ian Watson puts faith in Toby King after losing Ricky Leutele for run-in

Leutele was forced off with a knee injury in last week's win at Hull KR and could miss the rest of the season, although Watson is hoping a second opinion and Huddersfield's form will offer the in-form centre a lifeline.

The 32-year-old's powerful performances have helped the Giants nail down a place in the top four with 11 rounds remaining in Super League.

"At the moment, the diagnosis is 12 weeks," said Watson.

"It seems like it's his MCL and it's quite a high grade. We need to see the specialist to see if it's worse or better than the picture imaging was showing.

"If it's 12 weeks, it's going to be borderline for the play-offs. We'd need to do our job well to make sure we're in the play-offs and winning in the play-offs for Ricky to get back.

"Fingers crossed it's not as bad and the specialist sees it a different way.

"He's a great guy and a great player. He's been flying this year and massively important in what we've achieved."

King is the man tasked with replacing a player who has scored nine tries in 14 Super League outings on Huddersfield's left edge.

The 25-year-old only joined the Giants at the end of last week in a swap deal that took Jake Wardle to Warrington Wolves.

King himself has scored seven tries in 13 games this season but Watson is optimistic about getting more out of the centre.

"While it's a disappointment and he is going to be a loss, it gives a massive opportunity to Toby," added Watson.

"To be able to bring somebody of the quality of Toby in is a big, big plus for us.

"If you think about the impact Ricky has had on us this year, it's big shoes to fill - but I'm more than confident Toby can do that.

"We just need Toby to be Toby; we don't need him to be anything different than what he's been. He's played internationals, won Challenge Cup finals and been in Grand Finals.

"He's a player of calibre already. We think he's just lost his way a little bit and we just need to get him back to playing his best rugby because he's an outstanding player."

King's career will come full circle when he makes his debut for his hometown club at Castleford Tigers tomorrow night.

The former England Knights player is one that got away but Watson expects him to make up for lost time.

"Obviously you would have liked him to stay here and been here all his Huddersfield career," said the Giants head coach.

"But they obviously assessed Toby wrong, let him go and he's shown them what they missed.

"I think it's pretty special that we can bring a local Huddersfield player into the squad, especially when we're travelling so well.

"Hopefully he can get confidence off the other boys and performs at the levels we know he's capable of.

"We played against him earlier in the year and we couldn't handle him. He's one of those players that can be really special on his day."

Huddersfield remain without Theo Fages and Chris Hill this week, while Jack Cogger's year may be over due to a serious quad problem.

"It looks like he'll miss the rest of the season," said Watson.

"It's a bad injury at a bad time because he was starting to step up and perform really well."

The Giants will put their six-match winning streak on the line at Wheldon Road, a run of form that has taken Watson's side up to third in the table.

A top-two finish guarantees a home semi-final for a place at Old Trafford, leaving Huddersfield with plenty of motivation during the run-in.

"While we're sat comfortably in the top four, we're not going to be just happy to sit there," said Watson.

"We want to compete now to try and pull back St Helens and take over Wigan.

"We want to get a home draw in the play-offs to get our supporters behind us in those big games."