Whitehaven have been handed a major boost ahead of their battle to retain their Championship status.

Workaholic forward Anthony Walker is being allowed to join the west Cumbrians on loan for the remainder of the season.

Walker, who spent a month on loan from Wakefield, is linking up again, after being recalled by the Super League club.

Haven are preparing for eight defining matches, which open on Saturday night (6-30pm) with a home clash against Sheffield Eagles.

General manager Amanda Hewer said: “It’s really good news that Ant is being allowed back on loan with us because, in his month at the club, he was quite outstanding.

“He had four games in that time and I would suspect he was close to being Man of the Match in all of them.”

Walker had first played for Whitehaven on dual registration from St Helens after making his Super League debut at Bradford in February 2013.

He went on to be one of Nathan Brown’s preferred bench forwards until an ankle injury curtailed his run in the squad.

The young forward was capped for Wales in the 2013 Rugby League World Cup and scored a try on his debut.

He was allowed to move on loan to Wakefield under Brian Smith and at the end of last season that became permanent as he signed a two-year deal with the Wildcats.

The 24-year-old, 6ft, 15-and-a-half-stone prop replaces Andy Yates in the Whitehaven squad for the Super Eights.

Yates, who scored in Sunday’s dramatic 30-28 defeat at Workington, has now returned to Wakefield.

Whitehaven entertain Sheffield on Saturday and then have seven more games against the other teams who finish in the bottom eight.

The make-up of that secondary competition will become clear after Sunday’s final games in the regulation season – but six of them have been known for some time – Town, Whitehaven, Oldham, Sheffield, Swinton and Dewsbury.

They will be joined by two from Batley, Featherstone, Bradford and Halifax when the new set of fixtures will be drawn at random, with the bottom four having to make do with just three games at home and four away.