Ian Watson reveals he had to say no to desperate Jake Connor request

Ian Watson has consistently suggested that Jake Connor could make his debut against Wigan Warriors in Round Five but the former Hull FC star was left out of the squad for the game.

Speaking today, Watson explained why that decision was made revealing he had to say no to Connor’s request to start on the bench as he remains desperate to make his second debut for the club.

“From the medical team it is, probably not from Jake. Jake wanted to be named in the team and named on the bench when he saw that Theo Fages was going to be out and with Prycey stepping forward but we wanted to make sure he is right.

“Fingers crossed he will feature in the next two weeks. He was adamant he wanted to be on the bench and he even asked me and I told him no.

“He needs to do some fitness work, we don’t want to push him too early especially with losing Theo now, he is even more important.”

Watson also confirmed that Kevin Naiqama is in good shape ahead of the game:

“He wasn’t too far off anyway. The medical team just wanted him to do an extra week and we had Jake Bibby fresh so it wasn’t an issue.

“When your players have a niggle you don’t want to push them too far and break down.

“He has hit over 90% of his high speed in training consistently this last week which is a great boost coming up against Wigan.”