Jai Whitbread will not be involved at Wembley
Jai Whitbread of Hull KR and Tom Amone of Hull KR(Image: Sw Pix)
Hull KR boss Willie Peters has confirmed that Jai Whitbread will not feature for the Robins this weekend at Wembley Stadium.
Whitbread’s partner is in the final stages of pregnancy and with a due date close, the forward hasn’t travelled to London with the rest of the KR squad.
At the time of writing, the baby, Whitbread’s first, hasn’t arrived and he informed Peters on Friday morning that he wouldn’t be able to play in the Challenge Cup final.
“I had a conversation with Jai this morning,” Peters told the press pitchside at Wembley Stadium after the Robins’ familiarisation session. “Hopefully now he has the baby because it’s the best time of your life and it’s important that he’s with his partner.
“Unless anything changes but I’d let you know because there’s where it’s at.
“The deadline has been. Jai called me at 7am this morning.
“It’s his first baby, I’ll support any decision that he ran with. It’s an important time for him.
“We spoke a few weeks prior and we understood the possibility that he could miss this game.
“The deadline was initially Wednesday, then it went to Thursday and then today. So at 7 this morning he called me and said it was best he stayed him.”
Peters was able to confirm that Dean Hadley will be involved on Saturday afternoon, though, after coming through the club’s final training session unscathed.
“It’s huge, he’s been a massive part of what we’ve built and he’s a major reason of why we’re in positions like this,” Peters added on Hadley. “He’s so important to us. We got a scan back and there was something there but it was in a better spot. He had to go through some protocols in the week but he’s good to go.
“We knew game day minus three, so two days ago. He needed to get through today and he did.”