Transfer-seeking Liam Sutcliffe’s Leeds Rhinos future still up in air

Playing at centre, he impressed again as Rhinos defeated Hull KR 48-18 on Friday night to set up a Challenge Cup semi-final against Wigan Warriors on October 3.

Versatile Sutcliffe, 25, is under contract until the end of 2021 but requested a move in July.

Head coach Richard Agar praised his display against Rovers and insisted he does not want the Leeds-born player to leave.

Asked if he would rule out staying, Sutcliffe said: “I’ve handed it in now so we’ll see what happens for the rest of the season.

“There’s stuff going on in the background still. There’s nothing sorted yet. We’ll just see how it goes.”

Leeds secured a third successive win to leave them only 80 minutes from Wembley.

Sutcliffe, who lifted the Challenge Cup with Rhinos in 2014, said: “We were pretty happy with that one. There were a couple of sloppy bits in the second half but we’re happy to get the win.

“We’ve always been pretty confident (we can win trophies) and we’ll take a lot of confidence out of that into the semi and hopefully get to the final again.”

Agar said: “We feel Liam, for three weeks now, has played really good football and done a really good job on attack and defence.

“Centre is a position he likes playing. We have said to him all along we don’t want him to leave.

“The fact he has put a transfer request in hasn’t left any situation between club, coach and player. We have been very upfront and honest with each other. There’s not too much pressure on him from us.

“If a club comes in and makes an offer for him and he wants to go, I guess if the offer is acceptable we will listen to it.

“But ultimately he knows, because we’ve told him, we don’t want him to go and we hope at some point he changes his mind and likes to commit to us for a little bit longer.”

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