St Helens to ‘dig deep’ in market for Kyle Feldt replacement as Paul Rowley explains exit and options

St Helens head coach Paul Rowley has lifted the lid on the club’s immediate release of overseas winger Kyle Feldt, whilst also issuing an update on if, when, and what a replacement could look like.

Feldt, 34, signed for St Helens ahead of the 2025 season finished his career in the Red Vee with 33 tries in 29 games but a mutual agreement has afforded him a release with the winger expected to return to Australia.

A brief statement from the club confirmed the news of Feldt’s exit and when asked about the situation at his press conference on Thursday, Paul Rowley pointed to that statement.

He said: “I think we just support Kyle on that. It’s a shame, we wish him all the best on behalf of the team, but as it says in the statement, sometimes things come to an end for whatever reason, but we’re supportive of him, so we wish him well.

“If something comes to an end for whatever reason, and especially personal reasons, then I’m right behind it. This is a game after all, so there’s a lot more important things in life.”

Sir Kevin Sinfield, play-off race heats up and who can stop Wigan Warriors? – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.

St Helens to look to market for Kyle Feldt replacement

With so many injuries already plaguing their squad, the release of Feldt does leave another significant hole with Rowley asked about options to replace the Australian, whether those be on the market or internally.

He confirmed: “We are looking (at the market). First of all, we look within, but I think we’ve exhausted that to its absolute limit now, so, yeah, we’re looking, we’re looking all the time.

“There’s two significant factors to that, though. One is, even if you’ve lost players to injury, they’re still there on the cap, so then restrictions are still in place. It’s not a matter of just replacing like the olden days anymore, so there is cap restrictions.”

Feldt’s exit does offer the Saints some room to work with but Rowley admitted that it’s not a lot and that there may not be enough talent available to even sign.

He added: “Like you said, Kyle will free up some of that, but we’re halfway through the season, so not huge amounts, but there will be some flexibility.

“We’ll have to dig deep in terms of looking and exploring options there because, like we’ve already alluded to, a lot of teams have had a lot of injuries and there’s not too many players of quality floating about and ready to jump into somebody else’s environment, but we’ll certainly look.”