St Helens beat Castleford Tigers 26-24 at the Totally Wicked Stadium but that win came at a price as the club lost three players to injury.
The Saints welcomed back Lewis Murphy after a lengthy lay-off on Friday evening but the winger lasted just 30 minutes before being withdrawn with the same quad issue that he has struggled with all season.
Leon Cowan was next to leave the field and while he would be unlikely to play next week anyway, he failed a HIA and won’t be eligible to be involved.
Cowan’s exit came moments before Kyle Feldt had to be helped from the field after landing awkwardly on his back. The winger immediately clutched at his lower back before leaving the field very gingerly indeed.
With a play-off eliminator against Leeds Rhinos set up, Wellens will be checking on the latter injury in the coming days with Murphy seemingly ruled out now until next year.
“Lewis is a recurrence,” Wellens told Sky Sports after the game. “We knew it was always a risk bringing Lewis back into the team tonight but he was adamant he wanted to put his best foot forward in terms of helping the team towards the back end of the year but it wasn’t to be for him.
“Some back spasms for Kyle, I’m not too sure how serious that is at this stage.
“It’s not [ideal], but rugby league throws these things at you and you have to learn to adapt and find a way of offsetting those losses. It’s something we’ve been accustomed to doing in recent history and we’ll do the same again next Saturday.”
Paul Wellens on St Helens’ underwhelming performance
St Helens scored five tries on the night against the Tigers but struggled to see the West Yorkshire side off and conceded three tries in the final 10 minutes as Chris Chester’s side went close to securing a huge shock.
On his side’s performance, Wellens said: “Credit for Castleford there for not going away. There’s some indifferent stuff there for us tonight, obviously we had a few new faces and different combinations which doesn’t help things at times but we’ll reflect on this performance and take away a few things we want to continue on with.
“We have to be disappointed with that last 10 minutes and how we allowed the opposition back into the game like we did, despite the disruption that we have.”
Looking ahead to next Saturday’s play-off clash at Headingley, the Saints boss added: “A great opportunity for us and an exciting challenge. It’s a wonderful place to go and play, it’s always a fantastic atmosphere there and we’re looking forward to it.”
