Castleford expect former Man of Steel Luke Gale to miss most of the upcoming season with his ruptured Achilles.
The Tigers' pre-season was rocked on Saturday when the 30-year-old England half-back suffered the injury in training.
It came after the former Bradford Bull had just recovered from off-season knee surgery, having also missed a large chunk of the 2018 season with a knee injury.
Castleford had hoped for good news over Gale's chances of playing in 2019 but, speaking at the club's pre-season media day, director of rugby Jon Wells said he expected Gale would miss "between six and nine months".
If the latter prognosis is correct, Gale will miss the entire season and Wells said the club will seek salary-cap relief in order to sign a replacement.
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