St Helens head coach Kristian Woolf has given an update on his squad injuries.
Amongst them are Tommy Makinson, Will Hopoate, Curtis Sironen and Mark Percival who have all been injured for a number of weeks and months in different parts of the season.
Makinson, however, is key in terms of energy according to Woolf.
“It is extremely important to get him back, there have been no excuses but it is great to get someone like Tommy back,” Woolf said.
“He is a really big player for us and has a lot of good attributes. He always puts his hand up to take big carries and the way he can finish and defends is massive for us. He brings energy to the group.”
Both Hopoate and Percival are not too far away.
“Will Hopoate will do contact this week and we will need to increase that contact. If he handles that fine we will step that up next week.
“He has a good chance to play next week but he still has a lot of things to get through.
“Mark Percival is a frustrating one, it started as a very minor injury with minor bruising which players get all the time.
“That is a four to six week injury but that hasn’t quite healed for some reason. The latest scans have shown that it hasn’t quite healed so there is no timeline for that.”
Sironen, however, could be back shortly.
“He has a good chance but scans have shown it wasn’t as bad as we originally thought. It all depends on how he progresses through the week.”
The Saints boss is keen to address the wrongs of last week’s shock defeat to Salford Red Devils against Castleford Tigers this weekend.
“The person who needs to take most responsibility is myself. It’s my job to make sure the team is prepared and we will be looking at doing things different this week.
“They (Castleford) are in a position where they are desperate for something – they are desperate to be in the top six.
“We know they will play with hunger and energy and the challenge is to match that with ourselves. It’s important we don’t make the same mistake twice.
“There have been some funny results across the board and that’s because it is a tough period of the year.”
