Leigh Leopards booked their place at Wembley against St Helens over the weekend in a game that was clouded by controversy.
One of the main talking points was of course around the yellow card for Sione Mata’utia but there was also a lot of talk around the “incredibly dangerous” tackles from John Asiata on Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi from John Asiata which were branded as “incredibly dangerous” by Jon Wilkin on social media.
The RFL didn’t hit the loose-forward with a ban for these tackles but now medical scans have sadly revealed that St Helens prop forwards Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi will unfortunately miss out the rest of the 2023 Betfred Super League season.
Both Saints players suffered injuries in the Betfred Challenge Cup Semi-Final loss to Leigh Leopards last Saturday afternoon, with Paasi needing assistance to come off the field.
They have suffered horrific injuries as well as revealed by Paul Wellens who referenced Paasi in his post-match conference, saying that his knee had been “blown to smithereens” and it has now been confirmed that unfortunately Agnatius is likely to miss at least nine months of action with ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), MCL (medial collateral ligament), and ankle ligament injuries.
Alex Walmsley has sadly injured his MCL which will end his 2023 season and requires surgery which has happened today.
Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Morgan Knowles also suffered knocks following tackles made in the Semi-Final fixture, with McCarthy-Scarsbrook expected to miss at least two weeks, whilst Knowles could feature in our upcoming Super League game this week if he passes his fitness checks and is declared fit to play.
Ahead of Friday night’s game against Leeds Rhinos, Paul Wellens has been speaking to media in his pre-match press conference about the injuries suffered in the Semi-Final and said:
“Both Agnatius and Alex have been injured and injured pretty badly. We as a Club, myself as a coach, and those players in particular are angry, upset and disappointed with some of the events from the weekend. Not just those events, but what has transpired in the subsequent days, how we feel that both Agnatius and Alex have been let down by the game.
“We talk about player welfare and the duty of care to its players, those players have been failed this weekend. For Agnatius he is out for a minimum of nine months, he can only have his ACL repaired after his MCL and his ankle ligaments have also healed. It’s three injuries in one tackle. Alex has had surgery today on his MCL, that will be at least twelve weeks.
“Both Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook and Morgan Knowles suffered injuries, less severe but from similar tackle technique in the same game, so it’s something that’s really frustrated us. Louie’s is his quad/knee after taking a nasty knock, we’re hoping it’s not too long maybe a couple of weeks. Morgan is 50/50 for this week, we’re down on troops so he’ll do everything he can to promote himself to play, but we will not take unnecessary risks and force people to do things they are not capable of.”
