Warrington Wolves

Warrington Wolves man set for surgery after Challenge Cup Final injury

by
Sam Cook
June 11, 2025

Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess has confirmed one of the club’s stars will undergo surgery after last weekend’s Challenge Cup Final defeat to Hull KR.

It marked the second year in a row where Wire have been beaten at Wembley but this year will have surely hurt more given how long they led the game for.

Josh Thewlis’ late first-half try gave Warrington a 6-2 advantage which they held until the dying minutes when Tom Davies scored, with Mikey Lewis’ conversion giving Hull KR a famous 8-6 win.

The Wolves had not been at the races in 2024 against Wigan but they controlled the game for large parts against Hull KR with Marc Sneyd becoming the second man to win three Lance Todd Trophies, though the Warrington man conceded he didn’t really want it.

Those working punditry on BBC Sport’s coverage highlighted the key moment when Matt Dufty left the field injured as a moment where Warrington perhaps lost the final, and now there’s been an update on the Australian.

Warrington Wolves to be without Matt Dufty for “at least two weeks”

Dufty copped a blow from James Batchelor, for which the Hull KR man was handed a Grade C charge, midway through the second-half but played on until he could no more.

Leaving with eight minutes to go, it became apparent why with the area around his eye socket swelling and it’s now been confirmed that he has suffered a fractured eye socket.

Sam Burgess made reference to it post-match, stating: “Unfortunately we lost Dufty, he broke his eye socket with about 20 minutes to go when he clashed heads. It popped out with about seven or eight minutes to go, we’ll miss Dufty for a while which is unfortunate.”

Per BBC Radio Merseyside, Burgess has now confirmed that the full-back will be out for “at least two weeks” and is set to undergo surgery on the fractured eye socket.

It creates a problem at the position with youngster Cai Taylor-Wray also out injured, having suffered a hamstring injury when playing for the reserves back in April.