St Helens suffer huge blow

On Sunday, Leeds Rhinos and Leigh Leopards collided, Hull FC and Wakefield Trinity met in a vital clash and Salford Red Devils and St Helens met in the game of the round.

During the contest, star man Curtis Sironen was withdrawn from the field as he battles back from injury.

This of course raised questioned about the fitness of Sironen and with injuries mounting in the pack after the incidents in the Challenge Cup semi-final involving John Asiata with Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi out for the season.

However, Paul Wellens revealed on Saints TV that Sironen’s withdrawal was “a bit of a precaution.”

He said: “We brought him off with a bit of a precaution in the second half, he felt a bit of tightness again. Obviously he’s been out for a prolonged period, we don’t want to take any risk there.

“As I’m sat here now, I’ve got my fingers and toes and everything crossed that Curtis is going to be okay. As you saw when he was out on the field, he’s a handful, he’s an influential player for us. So yeah, hopefully he comes through okay. ”

Meanwhile, Will Hopoate was absent and this is because of yet another injury blow to the versatile back.

Wellens said: “No, his hamstrings, we think it might be a reoccurrence of a hamstring injury, or not a reoccurrence, a new hamstring injury, but we’re going to get that checked out in the week.

“Obviously, Will trained with us on Thursday and did the full session and we just had to get, allow him time, but we just thought it was too much of a risk. So we’ll get him looked at in a week but we’ll just have to find out, I can’t say too much more at the moment.

“Yeah the frustrating thing is that me sat here as a coach and the fans and everybody in the dressing room want Will Hopoate to play. But no one feels this more than him.

“So he’s disappointed when he can’t take the field and he’s obviously had a difficult 18 months or so with injuries since joining the club.

“There is no more reliable bloke when he’s on the field. In terms of role models and how you want to go about your business, Will Hopoate is up there with the very best. It’s disappointing that he’s not out there, we’ll get him assessed in a week, hopefully he can get back soon, but we’ll get a time frame on that in a week.”