Warrington Wolves’ George Williams on his ‘frantic’ return, his blessing in disguise and Marc Sneyd

George Williams admits the last few weeks have been ‘frantic’, but being out injured for the last seven weeks could be a blessing in disguise heading into the Challenge Cup final. The Warrington Wolves skipper damaged his ankle ligaments back in April while playing for Sam Burgess’ side against Hull FC and has since gone under the knife.

That operation was completed almost seven weeks ago and Williams has been on an intense rehabilitation programme since to get him ready for this week’s clash with Hull KR at Wembley Stadium. He’s successfully come through the other side, though, and he’s expected to lead his team out onto the turf under the arch on Saturday afternoon.

In fact, he’s made such rapid progress that Williams believes he could have featured last weekend had the cup final being brought forward a week. However, while the last few weeks have been challenging, they’ll all be worth it when he pulls on the primrose and blue in the capital.

“It’s been easy motivation with the goal of Wembley at the end of it, I’ve been able to do the right things at home and in training,” Williams told Serious About Rugby League.

“I reckon about three weeks ago we knew that I was going to make it. The first few weeks were unknown, I started running and how I reacted to it was trial and error but everything was good.

“Everyone said it’s an 8-10 week injury but it’s all symptomatic really but they got two lads back in seven weeks and that’s the same for me, seven weeks and two days post op.

“The first three weeks is where it got sped up, you’re meant to be on crutches for two weeks but I was walking after a week. The operation fixed it but it’s on pain and how you feel so it’s been fast-tracked, I’ve been in the hypobaric chamber, done my rehab and everything we can. It’s been frantic but we got there.”

Warrington Wolves skipper looks ahead to the Challenge Cup final

The time away from the pitch has been beneficial for the 30-year-old, though, with the stand-off being able to allow the rest of his body to recover from the opening couple of months of the season, which was testing enough for Warrington Wolves with the trip to Las Vegas being squeezed in.

However, it’s also given Williams the opportunity to spend the last few weeks focusing solely on Hull KR rather than being wrapped up in the weekly grind of Super League. As such, the captain has been studying KR closely and pinpointing weaknesses to exploit since Wire’s spot in the final was confirmed.

“Hopefully there’s a silver lining to it, six weeks on the body to get rid of some niggles and coming back firing at the end of the year,” he said.

“I’m not thinking about the games that week which sometimes can be refreshing and when you’re in it it’s just week to week to week. I’ve been able to take a step back and see what I thought our team was doing right and wrong as well, not as a team but just giving people teams because sometimes you see a bit more and when you’re at the brunt of it you don’t see it. I’ve been trying to lead in other ways and get around the young lads.”

He added: “With every team you watch, there’s things where you can expose them and I’m sure they’re saying the same about us after playing us a couple of weeks ago. The coaches do their side of it but as players, me and Sneydy are the older ones now, and we’ve got to do it ourselves.”

Of course, Williams will be lining up alongside double Lance Todd Trophy winner Marc Sneyd this weekend and while their partnership hasn’t been allowed to blossom as they would have wanted so far, they have been working together off the field in preparation for this weekend.

“We’ve had probably less than 10 training sessions together [since Sneyd’s arrival from Salford Red Devils],” Williams said. “We’ve been bouncing ideas and watching Hull KR play and where we think we can get them and because we’ve not had the time on the training field we’ve had to do it that way.

“He’s not said much [about his Lane Todd Trophies], he’s quite humble but I’m hoping he gets a third on the weekend, that will probably mean we’ve won.

“You can’t buy experience, he’s been there and done it and of course we need him at his best like every one of us. Hopefully he wins it again and that’s probably a good way of us being Challenge Cup winners.”