Injury woes continue to plague St Helens after a hard-fought 6-0 win at Leeds Rhinos lifted them to third in Super League.
Both hookers, Daryl Clark and Jake Burns, will miss Thursday’s huge game at Leigh Leopards after failing a head injury assessment (HIA) in the first half.
And coach Paul Wellens revealed 20-year-old prop Noah Stephens, who didn’t play against Leeds, is facing up to two months on the sidelines after undergoing surgery on a fractured thumb.
Of Clark and Burns, Wellens said: “It’s looking like they won’t be available next week so we’ve got some work to do in terms of how we recover and what we do with the team.
“We will have to continue to monitor them and give them the support they need and they’ll be back in a week or so I am sure.”
He added: “We had a bit of bad news during the week with Noah, he has got a fracture to his thumb.
“He picked up a knock last week and we had it investigated. The reason I didn’t mention it in the week was because we still were not sure on what course of action we were going to take there, but he had surgery on his thumb a couple of days ago and is likely to be out for around eight weeks.”
St Helens boss delighted with win over Leeds Rhinos
Reflecting on the game, Wellens admitted his team need to be more “clinical” with the ball, but insisted: “It was as good a defensive performance as I’ve seen in a long time, from any team.”
He said: “We were playing against a strong and dangerous outfit with so many individual threats and a collective threat. I am so proud of the team and the players.
“It wasn’t just a good defensive performance, it was one under a lot of pressure with a lot of adversity to deal with as well.
“The two blokes we lost with HIAs were both nines and Jake Wingfield stepped in there and did a good job.
“On top of that was lost Agnatius Paasi for 10 minutes at the back end of the game and managed to keep them out. That’s not easy to do, so credit to the team.”
Wellens reckons prop Matty Lees, who played the full 80minutes in sapping heat, was “the best player on the pitch” and he also praised 19-year-old centre Harry Robertson for proving his England call-up was fully justified.
Wellens insisted: “He was excellent, he is excellent and he’s going to continue to be excellent. I don’t see anything that leads me to think otherwise.
“Maybe a few eyebrows were raised when he was named in the England squad a few weeks ago, given his age and the fact he hasn’t played in that position for long, but he came up against a very good centre tonight and more than held his own. Credit to him for the hard work he puts in day-in, day-out. He is reaping the rewards.”
