Seen some say Cas dealt with Gale’s injury last year. However he got injured around Round 13 and other playoff contenders in Hull and Leeds had already hit their own issues. Doing without him from Round 1 throughout the season will be very different, just his loss in goal kicking and drop goals especially with the newly introduced golden point will cost them several points in the final league table.

To counter that printer, we used 8 full backs last year. Many of which by the time gale got injured.

This time we have a settled full back, who is a specialist there, he's a decent player and has a pre season with us. It wasn't just gale who we had injured last year either, we had plenty !

He's a loss but I'm still not expecting us to fall off a cliff.

Key word you use there, he’s a “decent” player.

Also I’m not expecting you to fall off a cliff, but it will hurt and effect your league position by at least 2 places if not more.

A decent specialist full back is better than any sort of make shift full back which is what we were working with till circa July time... plus peanut might be better than decent, I might be doing him a disservice.

Too early to say how long Gale will be out for.
Firstly, scans next week will show the severity of the injury.
There’s also an element of luck in the healing process with this injury. I actually did the same to both Achilles at the same time and, despite being the same injury, one healed much more quickly than the other even with exactly the same surgery and rehab.

My old man is currently in a boot due to a pretty innocuous rupture, and has been for about 10-12 weeks. He took it off to show me the other day and the majority of his lower leg muscle is pretty much wasted. He's expecting a similar length of recovery time and physio.

Because he’s a goal kicker I would imagine what foot it is that’s injured would be quite important. If it’s his kicking foot it does become more significant than if it’s his other foot.

Im 5mths, 4 days exactly, post right leg full rupture. The inside of my gastrocnemius is non-existent. I didnt have an op. I had a boot on from day 3 for 10wks with full weight bearing from about 5/6 weeks ie no crutches anymore. Started driving, wearing trainers from 14wks and physio told me to just try and walk normally. Walked up and down Malham cove last week. Yet i still cant stand on my tip toes. Long way to go still but making slow improvements all the time. Its an awful injury but im sure he’ll have the best care as a pro sportsman.

Without Lucas Gale Castleford Tigers cannot possibly make the top 5.

6th place would be a great achievement, but even that is unlikely. 7th to 8th is my prediction.

Club rivalry aside, that's an awful injury, and a nasty blow to Cas; real shame for the guy - he's an annoyingly good player.

Agree Bren.

I've seen the headline showing season ending injury but I don't know if this will be a career/SL ending injury? If he misses the full season he'll be almost 32 come the 2021 season and as we've seen so many times before it can take a while for players to return to form

If he fails to bounce straight back, I can really see him dropping leagues/standard or maybe even calling it a day.

Hate to see any RL player struck down with a serious injury tbh no matter the Club, especially before a game has been played.

At one-time a serious Achilles injuries were career finishers but as long as everything goes to plan such as surgery - if needed, then rehab, he should come back OK but obviously, it's a worrying place for a pro-RL player who kicks to get an injury. As you say he's not in his 20's anymore and had a serious injury last season & they generally get harder to keep coming back from as you get older imo.

Can only wish him good luck with the healing process - and those on here who've suffered similar. Sounds horrible.

It's very tough for professional sports people when something like this happens, as it's their future income on the line.

I think it’s more lost opportunities, they should have insurance to cover them. I’d say these days a half back is probably in their prime at 30/31 however to recover from such an injury is tricky.