St Helens face old rivals Wigan Warriors in Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final but which players are either unavailable or at risk of missing out?
Saturday’s semi-final comes just 36 days after St Helens’ dramatic win on Good Friday but they won’t have Hull KR loanee Bill Leyland to save them this time, with the Robins not expected to loan the hooker out.
One player they will have is veteran hooker Daryl Clark, who has just been named on the five-man shortlist in the early stages of the Super League Man of Steel race.
Leyland was loaned in again last week for Saints’ win over York Knights with Clark afforded a rest, a move that has split opinion but remains perfectly legal within the rules of the game.
As for Wigan, they’ll be without prop forward Ethan Havard after a disciplinary tribunal upheld the one-match ban he was handed following the Warriors’ weekend win over Bradford Bulls.
With so much on the line and so little to split these two on many occasions, we’ve looked at the early squad news.
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St Helens team news
The big blow for St Helens is that winger Kyle Feldt failed a head injury assessment in the win over York Knights so he will miss out, however, Paul Rowley does now have Deon Cross available with the outside back returning from his HIA.
Both Jack Welsby and Nene Macdonald made their returns last week and seemed to come through unscathed whilst it was confirmed that the duo of Daryl Clark and Joe Shorrocks were afforded a rest so they will both be available.
Doubts remain over Mark Percival and Curtis Sironen with the latter diagnosed with a four to six week calf injury in March, meaning he should be approaching a return soon.
The likes of Jake Wingfield (ACL), Agnatius Paasi (hamstring) and Jake Burns (ankle) are all out longer-term whilst several players including Jacob Douglas are out on loan.
Wigan Warriors team news
Whilst Wigan have been confirmed to lose Ethan Havard to suspension, they do get Harry Smith and Sam Walters back with that duo returning from three-match bans that they picked up in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
That means teen star George Marsden may drop out of the side but fellow youngster Jack Farrimond is expecting to continue with Bevan French still short of the 16-week timeline that was given to him for his hamstring injury.
Liam Marshall is one who will certainly miss out with his hamstring whilst fellow winger Dayon Sambou is out with a knee issue. Abbas Miski is another winger on the sidelines with the Lebanon international yet to play this year.
He suffered throughout 2025 with a knee injury but then had hamstring surgery in the off-season and he’s still yet to return. Another who hasn’t played in 2026 is Oliver Wilson who remains out with an ACL injury.
