St Helens head coach Paul Wellens has confirmed that the club have suffered a “cruel blow” with one of their stars to be sidelined for 12 weeks.
After NRL recruit Lewis Murphy suffered an injury in the Round One win over Salford Red Devils, Saints have seen their other NRL wing signing Kyle Feldt sustain a lengthy injury.
Paul Wellens has confirmed that Feldt will miss around 12 weeks with the veteran back set to undergo surgery on his hand on Friday, having initially injured the hand in the defeat to Hull KR.
Feldt will be one of at least two players to drop out of the squad that was named to face Leeds Rhinos after second-rower Joe Batchelor failed a HIA which rules him out for Friday’s clash against Warrington Wolves.
Speaking to the media, Paul Wellens confirmed Batchelor’s injury before revealing the ‘real unfortunate one’ with Kyle Feldt’s injury.
He explained: “We’ve had a real unfortunate one this week, which is Kyle Feldt. We’ve had scans and he has ruptured a ligament in his hand.
“He did that actually against Hull KR and played again last week but it’s worsened and he’s going to need surgery on that, which he will have on Friday.
“Now that could potentially see him out for 12 weeks, which is a cruel blow for us, and in particular Kyle, but the nature of the game is that injuries happen and we’ll support him in his recovery. It’s a disappointing one for us at this stage of the season.”
St Helens signing dealt 12-week injury with surgery required
Credit: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com
Explaining the problem more, Wellens confirmed that there had been hope among those at the club that Feldt would be able to manage the injury throughout the year in order to avoid surgery, however, scans proved otherwise.
The Saints boss said: “We were hopeful and he was hopeful that it would be something that we would be able to manage through to the end of the year and it wouldn’t deteriorate and worsen but having him seen the hand specialist, no that’s not the case.
“The ruptured ligaments has put the hand in a pretty vulnerable position and the bones and the structures around it so it turns out that it would be too much of a risk to go down the route that we were hoping to go down.
“Obviously, Kyle’s health and well-being come first and foremost so we’ve obviously taken that decision that the surgery is the best option at this time.”
It means that Jon Bennison will now be the club’s first-choice winger given that both Feldt and Murphy, who both signed from the NRL this season, are out injured whilst opportunities now look to be afforded for others to step up.
Wellens confirms another injury concern for key starter
Credit: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com
Whilst St Helens suffered plenty of injury issues last year all across the field, this season has seen them suffer in the outside backs and confirmation of Feldt’s injury came alongside an update for centre Mark Percival, who seemed to pick up a knock in Friday’s 22-14 win over Leeds Rhinos.
Wellens revealed: “Percy’s ran on the field with physios today so we’re assessing how he is and we’re hoping he continues to make a good recovery and be able to play on the weekend but we’re still not sure at this moment in time.
“In the outside backs we’ve been pretty depleted at the moment, obviously Konrad’s injured and we’ve already lost Lewis Murphy and Owen Dagnall as well so we’re down on numbers in the outside backs but what it will do is provide opportunities for others.”
There was some positive news in that Moses Mbye and James Bell, who both played in the reserves this weekend, are fully fit to return although they don’t provide cover in the outside backs which is where the Red Vee are thin on the ground.
On that pair, Wellens said: “They’re injury free and one of, if not both of them, may come into the 17 this week. Obviously, we lost two players from the squad last week in Kyle Feldt and Joe Batchelor so we need two to come into that 17 and those two certainly come into contention.”
