St Helens coach Paul Rowley has shared an injury round-up with a fresh update on the status of veteran centre Mark Percival, who has been the subject of reported interest from rival Super League clubs.
That interest has come after Percival reportedly had an offer for a new deal revoked, with ex-St Helens man Jon Wilkin speaking openly on Sky Sports about his belief that Percival’s contract had ‘gone missing’.
Despite the off-field speculation over Percival’s future, he’s still yet to play this season and Paul Rowley has confirmed that it could be another couple of weeks before he does take to the field.
“He’s running today is Percy, he’s started dipping his toe in with the team as well,” Rowley told media when asked how the 31-year-old is faring.
“He’s started integrating with us, not so much in terms of getting involved in the chaos, but certainly some of the warm up stuff.
“He can’t be far off now. I would say he’ll probably be in full training in the next week or two and then it’ll all move pretty quick from there, so he’s going there.”
St Helens forward pair ‘not far off’ return
One reason why Percival’s return is so important is that centre Harry Robertson may have to make a long-term switch to full-back whilst Jack Welsby is injured, meanwhile Saints are still awaiting a verdict on fellow centre Nene Macdonald after his quad injury.
Rowley confirmed that the injury needs to settle down before an injury timeline is established for Macdonald, if there even will be one as he also confirmed that the Papua New Guinean has an ‘outside chance’ of playing against Catalans on Saturday.
Two men who will not make the trip to Perpignan are Jake Wingfield and Noah Stephens with the forwards both injured, thoug they’re not far off.
Rowley explained: “They’d have been useful over the last two weeks as well. They’re not far off, I would hope again it’s another one to two weeks.
“I thought we were pushing for this week to be honest and they’ve trained but I’m not sure yet, I think they might have just run out of time.”
Another man who hasn’t featured in a competitive game this season is Agnatius Paasi, however, Rowley confirmed that the veteran’s absence is not a result of injury.
“He’s training really well, it’s just the team selection that one. That’s on me,” the coach admitted in respect to why Paasi was yet to feature.
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