St Helens’ Morgan Knowles on his two-year injury battle and ‘guilty’ feeling

Morgan Knowles admits he felt ‘guilty’ while sat on the St Helens sidelines through injury. After missing three months of the season with a troublesome groin problem that required surgery, Knowles made a return to action for the Saints last weekend against Hull FC.

The forward’s presence made a huge impact as Paul Wellens’ side bucked their five-game losing streak with a commanding and comfortable 46-6 win over the Black and Whites at the MKM Stadium.

Of course, that run of defeats, which saw the Saints slip down to sixth in the Super League table, largely came as a result of the club’s lengthy list of absentees, with Knowles one of a host of key players to have spent time in the treatment room of late.

A chunk of those players have now returned to action, though, with the 27-year-old being joined in fold by the likes of Joe Batchelor and Alex Walmsley, with the latter set to make a return on Thursday night against Salford Red Devils.

“It’s really frustrating [being injured] because you feel so guilty,” Knowles told the BBC. “You see the boys playing and doing big minutes and being asked to do a lot week in, week out and you can’t do anything.”

The England international has revealed he has been struggling with the injury for the last couple of years, but after going under the knife once more, he’ll hope to kick on and rediscover top form in a St Helens shirt.

“I’ve had a tough two or three months,” he added. “You start questioning things: Am I going to get back or get to where I was before, if not better?

“It’s probably longer than the three months, it’s two years I’ve been managing it and it’s the third surgery I’ve had now. I’ve been playing with pain for the past couple of years. Sometimes it would be better, sometimes it would be worse, but it was at a point where I couldn’t do my job whereas before I couldn’t do my job as far as I wanted to.

“But now it shouldn’t be limiting me and I should above and beyond where I’ve been in the past two years.”