Super League star faces uncertain future

After defeating Leeds Rhinos in last year’s Grand Final without key men, St Helens secured their place in history with a fourth consecutive Grand Final win.

However, they will have to do it even tough to win five in a row after losing Alex Walmsley and Agnatius Paasi for the rest of the season.

Their injury problems have now worsened as well with the loss of Will Hopoate, who returned just in time for the Grand Final last year to play a key role in the decider, with another hamstring injury.

Paul Wellens explained:

“Yeah, so Will’s going to be probably four to six weeks. It’s obviously a frustrating one for him.

“What many people won’t know is that Will’s been playing for a number of weeks now with a knee that needed a clean-out on it. So what this has done as a forward is the opportunity to get that done as well.

“So hopefully we can heal two things in the same time frame, with it being his knee and his hamstring. I know that Will is very keen to get back fit and finish the season strong with us.

“We’ll do everything we can to put him in a position to do that because he’s shown so many times that even though he misses a few weeks, he can come back and every time he’s come back, he’s always looked like he’s never been away. So we have every confidence in him that he can be a big part of what we’re trying to achieve at the end of the year.”

The versatile outside back faces an uncertain future as Paul Wellens addressed the situation:

“Yeah, look, I’m not going to go too much into detail but we’ve always had the open and honest, transparent conversations with Will around our approach to next year. So we’re all on the same page.

“There’s nothing too much to worry about and Will certainly feels under no pressure around picking up this injury and needing to be doing things at certain times.

“Conversations have been had and we’re all comfortable with where we’re at.

“For any overseas player I would use Will Hopoate as a role model, how to go about your business. He’s as dedicated as a professional as you will find. He’s a humble, really grounded individual, despite what he’s achieved in the game. He’s always done so well, despite being a really quality player as well. He’s almost the full package.

“It’s frustrating for us, me as a coach and as a team, that we haven’t had Will out on the field as much as we’d like in the last 18 to 24 months. But what I can say is not through Will’s lack of effort or lack of wants.”