Kristian Woolf confirms two star players will return for St Helens this week whilst two more drop out through injury

It’s gone under the radar how tough the Champions have done it this season in terms of injuries.

The Saints lost star player Sione Mata’utia earlier this season and Regan Grace is yet to play in Super League. Meanwhile, Will Hopoate’s start to life at St Helens has been up and down with injuries.

However, today Kristian Woolf confirmed that two of the three will definitely be back this week whilst the third is a possibility.

“Will Hopoate will 100% be back,” Woolf said, “Sione Mata’utia will 100% be back. Regan Grace is a possibility at this stage but not definitely.”

Despite this positive news, the Saints have lost two more players to injury going into this week’s game against Salford in the shape of Jake Wingfield and Jon Bennison. Woolf did confirm that Joey Lussick is okay after suffering a back spasm last week: “Joey Lussick is 100% going to be fine. He had a bit of a back spasm and I put that down to the fact he played four games in 13 days. That’s a big ask, and you get things like that of the back of that but he’s going to be fine this week.

“Jake Wingfield copped a little bit of shoulder injury. He’s not going to be available this week but it’s not a long term injury. I thought he was really good the other night. He used his skill well and played really tough.

“He won’t be available this week. I see him as a player going forward so we don’t want to risk him.

“Jon Bennison unfortunately is not going to be available this week. He fractured his cheekbone.”

The St Helens boss also confirmed that the spine we see from the Champions come Friday will be the spine he plans to move forward with for the rest of the season: “We’re going to come up with a plan for our six, seven and one this week that we think is the best and what we need to do there is show that it works and I’m very confident that will be the case and if that is the case that’s what we move forward with.”