JOSH Drinkwater landed in England today (Thursday) and may get chance to touch down again on Sunday when leaders Leigh resume their Kingstone Press Championship campaign.

The former London Broncos half back will be included in Neil Jukes’ initial long squad for the game against Swinton Lions at Heywood Road, Sale.

But even if considered too jet-lagged to feature, Drinkwater will almost certainly make his debut in Centurions’ Summer Bash show down against Bradford Bulls at Blackpool a week on Saturday.

Jukes is delighted to secure the loan signing of the Wests Tigers playmaker until the end of the season.

“Josh will be up for selection,” he confirmed. “He will certainly add to our squad with regard to the quality of rugby we play and the standards we set off the field.

“He comes highly recommended and Derek Beaumont, in particular, has done a lot of work to get him over the line.”

With Rangi Chase’s Leigh future in doubt, Drinkwater is a timely arrival to put pressure on Ben Reynolds and Martyn Ridyard.

“We must have competition for places,” said Jukes.

“That’s how team sport works and that’s how you get the best from individuals.

“Those individuals can either embrace the challenge or you can fall out with it. From experience though it’s always been good to have healthy competition and understand it is the team that always achieves not the individual.

“Ultimately, we need a good team and a good squad. If this team is to do anything this year it will be because of that squad rather than any one individual.”

Jukes admits he will face a selection dilemma once Drinkwater is available.

“It’s difficult because we played extremely well at the weekend,” he said of Leigh’s 56-14 victory over Oldham.

“But as a club, as players, as staff and as a team we will be embracing him and hopefully he can have a big involvement in hopefully this year’s success.”

Sydney born Drinkwater scored 136 points in 25 games for the Broncos during their relegation season from Super League in 2014. A member of Wests’ 30-man squad, the ex St George Illawarra Dragons player, was man of the match recently for NSW Residents against Queensland Residents.

“Josh has been killing it in the New South Wales Cup where he has been attracting a lot of attention from the NRL and Super League,” says owner Beaumont. “He has the credentials to significantly improve any side.”

Swinton’s five game winning run ended in a 54-8 defeat to the Bulls last weekend. But Jukes says: “We will treat them with the same respect we will show Bradford the week after.

“They have a lot of ex Leigh players and they will be highly motivated. They are a far better side now than they were earlier on in the season when we played them before.”

Sam Hopkins is free from suspension and Willie Tonga is set to play only the second game of his Leigh career after finally recovering from injury.

n Leigh have sold more than 1,000 tickets for next weekend’s visit to Bloomfield Road. Further sales are available by visiting www.leighcenturions.co.uk/tickets