Konrad Hurrell future update as St Helens coach makes transfer admission
Paul Wellens concedes St Helens need to move forward with whether or not they want to keep Konrad Hurrell at the club in 2025, with there still no resolution on his future with the club.
Hurrell’s season is over after he underwent neck surgery recently, meaning he will not feature again in 2024. It also could spell the end of his time with the Saints, with his existing contract up at the end of the season.
The Tongan international has been with Saints for the last three seasons and become a firm fan favourite. Now 33, Hurrell’s future is under more scrutiny than ever before, particularly given the surgery that has ended his campaign.
“Konrad is now out for four to six months, he is still in the very early stages of that recovery,” Wellens said when asked by Love Rugby League over his prognosis post-surgery.
That rules Hurrell out for the rest of this season, and Wellens admits now is the time for them to hold talks with Hurrell to determine what the future holds.
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There is believed to be an option in Hurrell’s contract for an extra year in 2025, which falls in St Helens’ favour to decide whether to trigger.
But Wellens said: “We are not really near to getting a resolution with him and his future at this stage but we do need to sit down and have those conversations.”
Hurrell has been in Super League since the beginning of the 2019 campaign and, if he does stay in the country, would likely be eligible to come off the overseas quota at the end of next season due to the rule changes which were revealed earlier this week.
Any player who has spent six successive seasons in Super League would not count on the overseas quota, a category Hurrell falls into.
But it remains to be seen whether or not he will be with the Saints in 2025 as things stand.
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