CONNOR Farrell will miss his first league game of the season after John Kear confirmed he won’t be risked at Leigh due to a dead leg.

The ever-present forward has started all but two of the Bradford Bulls fixtures in the Betfred Championship this season.

Farrell was a replacement in the York City Knights game and the Summer Bash match against Halifax and has been a key component of the Bulls line throughout the campaign.

But he sustained his injury in the 16-0 win at home to Batley Bulldogs last time out and Kear said it will put him out of Sunday's trip to their play-off rivals.

The head coach said: "Connor will certainly be missing, because his dead leg's worse than we thought it may well have been.

"He'll be out for that.

"So we've just got to cop that, because he's been very durable, he's missed very few games this season.

"But, we just feel it's better for him to miss this one and be back for next week than perhaps playing this 75 or 80 per cent fit, get a bang on it and he might be out for three or four weeks.

"We're being prudent with our management of him."

Bulls also have fresh injury concerns with Colton Roche.

The prop had his loan deal from Huddersfield turned permanent in May, but has struggled to get going for the Bulls.

Despite that, he's been a consistent presence on the bench and is now a doubt for the trip across the Pennines.

Kear said: "Whereas Connor is 80/20 against playing, I think Colton's probably 60/40.

"He picked up a groin injury, he limped off with that during the game.

"He wasn't able to train on Tuesday, so we'll have a good look at him today.

"I think he's a big doubt as well."

It's not all doom and gloom for the Bulls though.

Influential winger Jy Hitchox has been out with a shoulder injury since the end of February, but a return to action isn't far off.

As the promotion chase heats up, it's more important than ever that Kear's roster is being replenished.

He said: "Jy is probably a two-week horizon.

"I'm pretty excited about that, because he's been a long time out.

"Then Rhys Evans is probably at an end-of-July horizon and I'm excited about that as well, because he's been out a long time.

"You get them back for the climax of the season and hopefully the play-offs and we're looking a lot healthier than we are at the minute."