Leeds Rhinos: McDermott's hopeful on McGuire injury

McGuire went off after 32 minutes of last night’s opening 12-10 Super League defeat by Warrington Wolves and did not return in the second half.

It was McGuire’s first game as permanent captain and his injury is a concern with the World Club Challenge showdown against North Queensland Cowboys just 16 days away.

The coach admitted it was too early last night to determine the severity of McGuire’s injury.

“He’s done something, but it’s pointless speculating,” he said.

“He tried to run it off so you’d imagine it’s not really bad, but there is something in there.

“He has got a [knee] brace on.”

It was the first time Leeds have lost their opening Super League game since Wakefield Trinity Wildcats won at Headingley 16 years ago. Both teams scored two tries, but Zak Hardaker missed with his second conversion attempt and a late penalty which could have salvaged a point.

“It was a tough game,” McDermott reflected. “There were probably three or four things we wanted to be good at and we were good at those.

“There were probably more positives than disappointment, but if you are going to accuse that performance of anything it probably lacked a bit of cohesion and fluency when we attacked their try-line.

“Both teams defended very well and I think there was a fair few positives to take from that game, even though it was a loss.”

Warrington’s former Leeds coach Tony Smith said: “We came up with some outstanding plays, most of them defensively. They threw a lot at us, they had 10 extra sets we had to defend.

“I was a bit worried when they could have drawn the game on what I thought was a fairly soft penalty.

“I would have hated to lose a point on that penalty, but fortunately it worked out.”