St Helens injury news: Paul Wellens provides update on quartet ahead of Challenge Cup semi-final

St Helens coach Paul Wellens has provided the injury latest on Tommy Makinson, Tee Ritson, Joe Batchelor and Curtis Sironen ahead of Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final.

The Super League champions face the impressive Leigh Leopards in the Challenge Cup semi-final at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Saturday afternoon, 2:30pm kick-off.

Saints will definitely be without captain James Roby and influential centre Mark Percival after the pair failed head injury assessments in last Thursday’s defeat to Catalans Dragons.

Makinson, Ritson, Batchelor and Sironen have been sidelined with their respective injuries in recent weeks.

When asked if any of the four could return for the semi-final, Wellens replied: “Potentially. A lot will come down to how we fare in training this week.

“We’ve had a training session this afternoon and we’ll train again on Wednesday afternoon and that’ll be the main session for the week.

“How those guys come through that session will determine whether they play or not on Saturday.”

St Helens won’t take risks if players aren’t 100 per cent, insists Paul Wellens

Wellens didn’t confirm or deny whether any of the aforementioned would be back this week, but he did confirm that they will only play if they are 100 per cent fit and healthy leading into the game.

He added: “They are all at different stages in terms of their rehabilitation but we’ll judge each on its own individual merit.

“If the physios and the medical team think they are fit enough to play, then I’ll have no hesitation in picking them but at the same time we won’t take risks because we don’t want players sat out long-term for another four, five, six or seven weeks.

“We understand this is an important game, its a knockout semi-final and there’s a huge prize at stake but what we want to do this weekend as a club is put 17 healthy bodies out there who can go out and compete hard for 80 minutes.

“In games like this you can’t carry passengers, so the important thing is that if those players are fit, they are fit enough to go out there and compete for the full 80.”

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