Leeds Rhinos boss Rohan Smith rates Nene Macdonald's Hull FC chances as he provides Harry Newman and James Bentley latest

The Papua New Guinea outside back – an off-season arrival from Leigh Leopards – has had to be patient in his early days at Headingley after arriving with a quad injury sustained during the World Cup.

Macdonald sat out the heavy round-one defeat at Warrington Wolves but he is poised to make his debut this week following his inclusion in Smith's initial 21-man squad.

When asked about Macdonald's chances of playing, Smith replied: "Very good.

"I think he's ticked off all of the things regarding healing time, which is one of the parameters.

"He's certainly ticked off all of the return to play measures and the testing, and he's been back amongst the team for a few sessions. He's there or thereabouts."

With Harry Newman still on his way back from his latest hamstring issue, Smith went into the opening game without a specialist centre and had to use two wingers in Ash Handley and David Fusitu'a.

Macdonald’s return to fitness appears to plug one of those gaps but Smith remains coy about where the 28-year-old will slot in.

"You're assuming he's going to play centre if he plays,” said Smith.

"I see him as a centre or a winger. The guys that played centre last week did a decent job. They weren’t at the hub of our issues, that’s for sure.

"A lot of the skills he has apply equally whether he plays centre or wing. He's played mostly as a winger in his NRL career and he's also played full-back as a younger player. He played at Leigh last year in the centres but if he'd played on the wing he'd have had a big year.”

Newman, Mikolaj Oledzki and James Bentley were among the other players that missed out against Warrington and their absence was keenly felt.

Although they are progressing well, all three players are also likely to sit out next week’s date with St Helens.

Smith added: "James Bentley and Mikolaj trained well today. Harry is going well. I won’t forecast who is going to be back first – but it won’t be Mikolaj.

"James and Harry will hopefully be back in the next couple of weeks. Both of their injuries are a bit out of the ordinary so it’s a little hard to tell.

"We’ll make sure they’ve done a suitable amount of full team training before they’re back. They haven’t done a lot as yet.

"Next week would be a possibility rather than a probability.”

Smith opted to start Kruise Leeming at hooker against Warrington after ending last season with Jarrod O’Connor in the role.

The Rhinos found themselves 30-0 down at half-time but Smith will stick with the plan this week.

"Kruise had a fantastic pre-season,” said Smith. “He’s trained very hard and is in very good condition.

"He’s a veteran at the position. Jarrod has done a great job for us when called upon but he’s still very much learning the dummy-half position. It was important to get the season started with a veteran of the position and Kruise earned the right with the way he trained through the pre-season.

"Kruise will be starting again this week and Jarrod will support that as needed. Jarrod can also play 13 so we’ll use him as we see fit.”