St Helens injury latest as promising updates given on Mark Percival and Jack Welsby

St Helens boss Paul Wellens expects to be able to welcome Mark Percival and Joe Batchelor back to fitness in the not too distant future. Percival has been out since undergoing surgery for a bone spur injury in his ankle earlier this month.

The prognosis at the time, two and a half weeks ago, was that the centre would miss around five or six weeks of action and it seems he is on track to return within that timescale. Percival will miss this Sunday’s clash with Salford Red Devils, of course, and he won’t be involved when the Saints head to Hull FC next week either.

However, it seems he could be pushing to be involved the following week when the Saints take on Leeds Rhinos for the fourth time in all competitions this season.

Batchelor is looking at a similar return date after being ruled out for four weeks earlier this month with a calf tear.

Wellens has also confirmed that Jack Welsby is pushing to potentially return a little earlier than expected, which could well be great news for both the Saints and England, with Welsby nailed on to be Shaun Wane’s number one should he be fit enough.

“Percy is probably a couple of weeks off,” Wellens said when giving an injury update in his pre-match press conference. “Joe Batchelor is not too dissimilar.

“Jack, despite it being a long-term one is making great progress and he’s pushing the physios to try and accelerate a few things which is great to see but we’ll be sensible there. Lewis [Murphy] as well, he’s still got a bit to go, but they’re all progressing in the way we’d want.”

St Helens eyeing third straight win

The Saints currently sit fifth in the table and they know that a win over Salford Red Devils, which they are expected to claim with relative ease, will be enough to move to within a point of fourth placed Leigh Leopards, who have been one of the brightest performers in the competition this season.

“We probably sit where we deserve to sit,” Wellens added when speaking about the table. “I think the league table over the course of the season very rarely lies.

“We’ve had some good performances but we’ve also had performances which haven’t been to our standard and consistency has been an issue for us. In recent weeks we’ve started to be a lot more consistent but the challenge for us is to maintain that over a longer period for two or three games, we need to start doing that more consistently for a longer duration.”