
George Williams will play for Warrington Wolves on Saturday afternoon but Sam Burgess was slightly less committal when asked about the fitness of Toby King, Jordy Crowther and Lachlan Fitzgibbon.
Williams has been battling his way back to full fitness after undergoing ankle surgery in April and while he hasn’t played since sustaining the injury, he will start for the Wolves on Saturday against Hull KR in the Challenge Cup final. His return comes as a huge boost, having pushed himself through a fast-tracking programme used in rugby union to get him back to the position he needs to be in.
He has been training for just over a week now, though, and, speaking at a Challenge Cup final media event on Monday afternoon, Burgess was quick to underline the confidence he has in his star man’s fitness.
“I think first and foremost we have to be responsible,” Burgess said. “It’s seven and a half weeks post surgery and it’s been done before, it’s not ground-breaking but he’s really pushed the boundaries and he’s worked extremely hard.
“There’s always an element of risk with any player returning from injury. It’s not soft tissue which is generally a higher risk, it’s more of a structural situation and he’s been in full practice for the last seven to 10 days. He’ll be pretty confident he can get the full 80 minutes done.”
Asked if Williams would have played if Warrington had a normal league game to play this week, Burgess said: “It’s a tough question because obviously we’ve pushed harder for this game, if there was no rush then maybe not.
“I go back to the responsibility, our responsibility to George and the other 16 players that are playing, is to not put them under pressure or a position that’s going to harm them from success and make the job harder. We’ve made a strong call as a group and staff.”
Warrington Wolves boss gives injury update
Burgess will be checking on the fitness of Fitzgibbon on Tuesday when Warrington head back into training. The forward picked up an issue in Friday’s win over Castleford Tigers and while the head coach was confident he would fit, he couldn’t be completely certain.
“I think so,” he said when asked if Fitzgibbon was OK. “We’ve not really practised this week, I’ll see him tomorrow and see how he’s pulled up, but all signs are pointing in the right direction.”
Neither King nor Crowther played against the Tigers through injury and it seems they remain big doubts for the trip to Wembley.
“They’re a bit more of a stretch,” he added. “We’ll give them until the last minute but they’re both probably a bit of a stretch.”
