Richard Agar has backed Ash Handley to come back better than ever after being ruled out for six weeks.
The winger, Super League's top try-scorer last season, suffered a knee injury in the pre-season defeat to Huddersfield on Saturday.
Scans have confirmed an MCL injury, which will see him miss the early rounds of the season.
However, while Agar is undoubtedly disappointed with the setback, he has no doubt that Handley will soon be wreaking havoc on the field.
"He's been absolutely flying in pre-season," Agar said.
"He's highly motivated for the World Cup at the end of the year and it's a big blow to us, but six weeks, he's in very good shape is Ash, so fingers crossed we can hit all our targets in rehab and get him back early.
"He's our fittest player, undoubtedly, when you look at the workload, what he does in a game, you've got to be fit to do that amount of work. It's hopefully going to help him on his recovery and I know Ash will do everything right, eating, sleeping, ticking every box when he gets the brace off his leg. It's a blow and not something we needed at this stage of the year but that's what your squad is for.
"Ideally everyone wants to come out of the blocks round one, that's not going to be the case for us, we've got one or two injuries coming into round one but we've got every confidence in our squad."
Agar is already without Rob Lui as he continues to overcome a torn quad while the likes of Luke Gale and Konrad Hurrell have been dealing with injuries, though it's hoped both will be fit for round one.
Callum McLelland, Tom Holroyd and Alex Sutcliffe are also doubts for round one, with Leeds taking on Wakefield Trinity next week.
