St Helens boss reveals stance on futures of Jake Wingfield and Konrad Hurrell

Paul Wellens is keen to see Jake Wingfield extend his time with St Helens as he approaches the end of his current deal with the club. However, the Saints boss also admits that there have been no discussions when it comes to the future of Konrad Hurrell.

Wingfield has had an important role to play at the Totally Wicked Stadium since breaking through into the first-team picture from the club’s academy ranks. Since making his debut in 2020, he has made 56 appearances for the Saints and that’s a figure that includes nine outings this term.

Injuries have preventing him from making the progress he would want for St Helens, though, with his latest absence being down to concussion. As such, it seems there is doubt about whether he will be able to reach the number of games needed to automatically trigger a one-year extension to the deal he signed in October 2023.

Wellens isn’t concerned about that, though, and insists he is keen to see him stick around beyond the end of the season.

“We very much want Jake to part of this club’s long term future,” Wellens said on Wednesday afternoon. “He’s a quality person and a really good player as well.

“Jake has had a really unfortunate time with injuries in the early part of his career and what’s really important for him is probably not to get too distracted by contract talk.

“I understand you do need to have stability there and I would support him in that, but get back and get playing consistent and regular rugby and once he starts to do that, there’s no doubt he’s a quality player who will play a lot of games for this game. We see him very much a part of our future.

“Given the amount of injuries that he has had, it’s probably unlikely that he will meet the level of games anyway. However, that’s not something we’re overly concerned about. It’s about supporting Jake.

“He had the concussion in the Challenge Cup game a few weeks ago which he is making a strong recovery from, but get back in the team and play consistently well, that’s his challenge. Jake knows exactly what we think of him here at St Helens.”

Paul Wellens on Konrad Hurrell’s St Helens future

Asked about the future of Konrad Hurrell, who remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, Wellens admitted any discussions are on the backburner until he can get himself back fit and playing.

“We’ve not really had any discussions around his future yet primarily because Konrad has been out of the team, injured and not played,” Wellens added. “Until that starts to happen and Konrad is playing regular, there’s no point in having those discussions.

“We’re always looking at our quota spots as a club in terms of how we fill them and what positions we use to fill them and those discussions are on going and ever changing as well because the landscape changes quite quickly in this game.”