Betts won’t rush injured stars

Widnes Vikings’ boss Denis Betts will resist the urge to rush players back into action despite his team’s lowly position in Super League.

The Vikings’ victory at Leigh last weekend was their first win in seven games, but Betts insists he will tread carefully with his absentees.

“It’s a short turnaround for some of the fellas from Saturday to Friday,” Betts told the club’s official website.

“We’ve got another short turnaround from Friday to Thursday, then Thursday to Monday, then Monday to Friday, so I’m getting people back on their feet and it’s going to be paramount.

“I’m not bringing them back too quickly. We’ve got Corey (Thompson) – he’s hopefully going to be recovered enough this week to participate in full-time training.

“Pat Ah Van is back this week as well and Joey Mellor is right on the edge of being able to play. We’ve got some pretty stringent protocols to go through, especially someone like Joe.

“The way he plays, we’ve got to be pretty tough on saying when he’s ready. You can’t be a ten to fifteen minute run out – he’s got to be ready to play.

“If we can keep bodies on their feet we should be in a nice place to be and we can then also rotate a little bit to get people playing.”