St Helens set to make big decision on injured stars ahead of Wigan Warriors clash

St Helens are set for one of the biggest games of the season next week as they host Wigan Warriors in the Betfred Super League after back to back wins away at Leeds Rhinos.

But the Saints have some injury worries to consider before they take on the Wigan Warriors.

This week, the Saints were without both Lewis Dodd and Tommy Makinson but there is a chance that both could play against the Wigan Warriors next week.

They will also be concerned over the availability of Morgan Knowles after he picked up a knock against the Leeds Rhinos.

If all three play that would be a major boost for the Saints and does seem in the realms of possibility at the moment.

It will be a big decision for Paul Wellens to make both on Wednesday when he names his squad and when he names his side on Good Friday.

Reflection on big result for St Helens

Paul Wellens was delighted with the performance ahead of the meeting with Wigan Warriors as his opposite number Rohan Smith of the Leeds Rhinos was less than pleased especially with the way the game was refereed.

He said: “Well it doesn’t help but the way the game was refereed, pretty consistent throughout today. After half time I thought we tackled better so that helped our attack. The two go together. It’s very much a game of complementary facets of the game rugby league I believe.

“So the better you tackle usually the better you attack as well. I think we saw parts of that. The games will get faster I guess with, well maybe they never did last year. It is what it is. I’m not going to bother about it. We’ll just play direct, very direct with how we play. It has to be the way because offside doesn’t matter most of the time.”

On being dumped out of the Challenge Cup again, as they were against Wigan Warriors in 2023, Castleford Tigers in 2022 and again against the Saints in 2021, Smith said:

“Yeah, it’s very disappointing, that element of it. There’s a lot of hurt people in that dressing room at the moment. You could feel that aspect of what we wanted to accomplish this year slipped away. So, it’s disappointing. There’s a narrow focus now on one competition, so we’ll dust off and go again next week.”