Short interlude frustrates Potter as Purtell returns

Having defeated Castleford Tigers 46-32 in front of the television cameras on Monday night, the West Yorkshire club are covered by Sky Sports once more when they head to Langtree Park on Friday.

It has left Bradford with minimal preparation and recovery time and Potter admitted: “Perhaps the people who did the draw at the start of the year maybe needed to look at it before it came out.

“It’s not really what you want and if everyone had their time again it should probably have been played Saturday or Sunday.

“But it’s stuck in there now and we’ll just grin and bear it, smile with clenched teeth and say it’s one that slipped through the net.”

Potter must announce his squad this afternoon but took the unusual step of doing that directly after the Castleford success.

“We haven’t really got time to assess the players so we’ll just name the same 19,” said Potter who is already missing 11 first-team squad members.

He met with one of those on Monday, Australian centre Adrian Purtell who is recovering from a heart-attack suffered after Magic Weekend.

“He looks fine and wanted to come to the (Castleford) game,” said Potter. “But he thought that he’d have been answering a lot of questions – probably some he wouldn’t be able to answer – and be on his feet a lot while probably getting a bit too excited on the sidelines.

“He’s got another assessment in six to eight weeks to see where he is as far as his career goes.”