PAUL Crarey is highly anticipating the return to action of Glenn Riley after the prop completed his recovery from injury.

The 27-year-old had something of an up and down first season with the Raiders in 2018, but showed plenty of promising signs during their pre-season games this year of forming a formidable front-row partnership with fellow West Cumbrian prop Tom Walker.

A hip flexor injury suffered in training ahead of the season-opener away to Batley Bulldogs has sidelined him since them, although Riley has been cleared to face Dewsbury Rams tomorrow and head coach Crarey cannot wait to have him back.

“He’s in a good place himself this year, he’s got a good job and he’s settled down, and we’re reaping the benefits of that,” said Crarey.

“I was absolutely gutted when he missed out because he was absolutely outstanding in the pre-season games and his hip flexor was badly damaged.

“We let him go this week and hopefully it hasn’t caused him too many problems, and he can get back to where he was very quickly.

“If he does that, he’ll be a massive addition because last week we only had Willie (Minoga) as a middle off the bench and he’s an impact player.”

Riley’s return follows vice-captain Nathan Mossop making his comeback from injury against York City Knights last Sunday, but Dan Toal is still at least two weeks away from returning.

The Ulverstonian back row has been struggling with a back injury since pre-season and Crarey is optimistic Toal is not too far away from being in contention.

“We kept getting put back with Dan as his back keeps spasming, so there’s obviously an underlying problem there,” said Crarey.

“But we’ve been told this time it’s going to be two weeks and he’s started light training now.

“He’s pretty good and dynamic, Dan, so we’ll give him an opportunity in certain games and try to get him back to some kind of fitness.”