St Helens boss offers injury update on Lewis Dodd and Alex Walmsley

St Helens’ 17-16 win over Salford Red Devils was soured somewhat by an injury blow to Lewis Dodd which head coach Paul Wellens has since provided an update on.

Dodd will head to the NRL for 2025 after signing with South Sydney Rabbitohs but that didn’t stop the 22-year-old from being dropped by Wellens last month.

Despite that, an injury to Jack Welsby and a three-game ban for club captain Jonny Lomax led to Dodd’s recall and he’s stepped up and met that challenge well, but was forced off last night.

Post-game, Paul Wellens revealed what exactly is the issue for Dodd after praising him and fellow halves partner Moses Mbye.

“That (losing Welsby and Lomax) would impact any team but Lewis and Moses were two halves that really got the team around the field and stuck to the game plan,” Wellens explained to the media.

“With Lewis, he’s got a bit of an arm injury though, but he needs to get scanned. I think it may be some ligament-type damage, but we won’t really know any more until we get those medical assessments.”

With Welsby out for the majority of the rest of the season and Jonny Lomax still suspended for the upcoming Magic Weekend clash with Wigan, a significant injury to Dodd could be a major blow.

St Helens Quiz: Can you name these former Super League players?

Alex Walmsley returns for St Helens

Despite the injury concerns around Dodd, St Helens did receive a major boost with the return of Alex Walmsley and the prop forward proved pivotal in the match-winning drop goal.

After full-back Harry Robertson broke a tackle to gain 15 metres, Walmsley caught Salford sleeping and ran from dummy-half to make a further 15 metres with those first two carries in the set setting St Helens up with brilliant territory for the drop goal.

Paul Wellens lauded the praise on the 34-year-old, stating: “I didn’t go into tonight expecting too much from Alex, because he has been off for such a long period, but as he normally is, when he’s on the field, he impacts the game in a positive way.

“He’s hard to handle, carries the ball really strong, and generates some good ruck speed for us. It’s great to have him back and hopefully, he can stay out on the field and be with us now until the end of the season.”

Walmsley coming through fit and therefore ready to go again in a week’s time against Wigan is a massive boost with Saints finally starting to get some semblance of their strongest forward pack back again.

Another boost for Saints was confirmation that Daryl Clark passed his HIA whilst Wellens also believed that prop Agnatius Paasi had passed his, as reported by the St Helens Star.