Salford Red Devils boss Paul Rowley hits out at ‘horrendous’ training pitch following injury crisis

Salford Red Devils head coach Paul Rowley has hit out at his side’s training pitch after numerous player succumbed to injuries.

Rowley is taking charge of his first Super League side and, despite maintaining his commitment to hitting all training sessions, has lambasted the state of the training pitch.

Salford take on Swinton Lions on Saturday, but the Red Devils will be without a number of key men following a number of injuries.

“There’s been two challenges,” Rowley said in the pre-season press conference.

“One of them is what everyone has been doing which is dealing with the COVID situation, and we’ve had a lot of injuries caused by our training pitch which isn’t fit for purpose really.

“If I’ve got a bugbear, that’s something we put up with, but we said from day one we’ll never cancel a session and we’ve been true to that.

“I just don’t think it has been maintained properly over the years – I think we’ve had something like six calf strains, a concussion from a slip, and we had someone go down with a twisted ankle today on it.

“I’m not a groundsman but however it is, it’s pretty horrendous to be honest.”

For Rowley’s men, Saturday will be the first hit out following the sacking of Richard Marshall late last year.