Adrian Lam on George Burgess injury and Bevan French masterclass

Wigan head coach Adrian Lam says George Burgess is likely to miss next Friday’s game against Castleford with a hip injury.

The Warriors new signing was interchanged after 20 minutes of their Super League opener against Warrington and didn’t return to the field.

Speaking in the post-match press conference, Lam revealed that Burgess had aggravated an existing problem during his debut for the club.

“He got a knock on the hip that we’ve been trying to maintain over the last couple of weeks,” said the Wigan boss.

“It has been ongoing but we will manage that. It will probably be too soon (next week), we will have to wait and see with George.

“But we have strengthened our squad this year and the one benefit we have got is we can put Joe Bullock or Mitch Clark in there now.”

Shortly after Burgess departed, the Warriors also lost hooker Sam Powell who was stretchered from the pitch unconscious after a high tackle from Chris Hill.

Lam provided an update saying: “Yeah, he’s walking around in there. Obviously he is a little bit dazed but he’s okay.

“When you are down that long I think it’s an automatic week’s rest. I’m not 100 percent on that, but yeah, he will probably miss next week.”

Chris Hill was sent off for the hit on Powell after just 23 minutes, however the game remained a close contest with Wigan eventually prevailing 16-10.

Bevan French proved to be the difference between the teams as he excelled in his new fullback role – scoring and creating two of the Warriors’ three tries.

Speaking about French’s positional change, Lam said: “I made a decision to play him at fullback. I had a great talk to Zak (Hardaker) about it and I thought Zak was outstanding in the centres tonight.

“With Bevan at the back there it allows him to play a halfback role at times.

“Over the course of the season we may have to move him to one of the half spots but I thought he played really well.

“He had a great impact on the game at different times, so yeah, he’s exciting.”