Warrington Wolves will welcome back Cai Taylor-Wray next week, in one of multiple injury returns for Sam Burgess as they take on Leigh Leopards for the second week running.
Following their 42-6 dismantling of the Leopards in Super League this weekend, the two will face off again next week in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup, in a repeat of last year’s semi-final.
Albeit it against a significantly under-strength side, Burgess men looked comfortable in victory and will be hoping for a similar performance and scoreline next weekend.
In that last eight tie, the club are set to bring back their wonderkid full-back Taylor-Wray, after he has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury picked up in training.
“Cai will be playing next week,” revealed Burgess in his post-match press conference to the delight of the Wire faithful.
The news comes at an even better time with stand-in full-back Josh Thewlis having to come off half-way through the Leigh win with a minor issue.
“We always planned to give Josh a bit of a break,” the Warrington boss revealed. “We figured we’d just try different ways to cover it, we put ‘Kingy’ [Toby King] to full-back and they scored on us when that happened.
“But it was a good experience for us as a group and we managed most things really well, so I was happy with that.”
Another man who picked up an injury on Saturday was Jordy Crowther, who suffered a fractured cheekbone in a head-on-head collision. Surprisingly, he passed the HIA concussion test, but it was the knock to the keep that stopped him from returning.
Crowther adds to the already large injury list to the Warrington forwards, and were without Luke Yates, Kelepi Tanginoa and Toafofoa Sipley for the home clash. In what is huge news for the side though, the boss revealed that the majority of those currently sidelined will be in with a chance of returning next week.
He said: “There will be a couple back next week. I think Toph [Sipley] won’t be back, but I’d say almost everyone else will be.”
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