The weekend’s Challenge Cup semi-finals saw four brilliant teams in action with cup holders Wigan Warriors falling to Hull KR, whilst Leigh Leopards edged out St Helens on Saturday, but sadly the talk since has been centred around injuries, tackle techniques and disciplinary matters.
Whilst Sunday’s fixture was relatively injury free, despite the red card for Wigan’s Joe Shorrocks, the same couldn’t be said for Saturday’s fixture at the Halliwell Jones.
St Helens picked up a whopping four injuries, all to members of their pack, during that game and it’s been confirmed that two of those have sadly ended the season for Agnatius Paasi and Alex Walmsley.
The pair have both suffered damage to their MCL, a three month injury, however for Paasi he has also sustained injuries to his ACL and ankle ligaments.
As a result the forward will be out for nine months, as the surgeries have to be done separately with one coming after the other has healed.
Wellens also noted that veteran Louis McCarthy-Scarsbrook will miss two weeks whilst Morgan Knowles is a 50/50 chance of playing on Friday against Leeds Rhinos.
It’s a huge dent in Saints’ pursuit of five Grand Finals victories in a row and also psychologically for the morale of the team but more importantly that of the two severely affected players.
Wellens explained this when speaking to BBC Merseyside.
“Look, in Agnatius and Alex, we’ve got two extremely disappointed, angry, upset players that they’ve been left in this position and the game hasn’t protected them.
“What I will say is that as a group we’re disappointed that we lost a big game last week. I couldn’t be any prouder of the way our players have came in this week, the way we’ve trained today in terms of us wanting to move forward as a group.
“What we’ve done is park the disappointment of last week, but at the same time we can’t move on without addressing some of the serious issues within our game that need dealing with and dealing with quickly.”
On Walmsley in particular, who has previously suffered a serious neck injury, Wellens revealed that the prop is questioning the sport as a whole.
“Alex’s 12 weeks and 12 weeks doesn’t sound a lot when you compare it to Ignatius’ nine months, but at the same time, Alex Walmsley at this moment in time is questioning if rugby league is the sport for him, and I can understand why.
“We come down now so hard as a game, on players with head injuries and things like that, and we’ve lost another guy this week and we accept that charge.
“However, what I know as a player, as someone who’s played the game for a long, long time, I’d much rather go on the field and be clipped round the head than have someone dive at my knees and blow my knee to bits.”
Wellens confirmed that it massively hurt St Helens chances for silverware at the end of the season.
“It certainly hurts our chances doesn’t it? They’re two important players, two influential players and we’re disappointed they won’t be there.
“Really at the moment, the overriding emotion in terms of both Agnatius and Alex is making sure they’re okay as much emotionally as physically. They’re not in a good place at the moment and I can understand why.
“But as a group, we’ll move forward, we’ll galvanise, we’ll pull together.”
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