St Helens give update on Regan Grace

St Helens have announced winger Regan Grace will be out for up to four weeks with a hamstring injury.

The Welsh international was forced off as a precaution during Saints’ Challenge Cup win over Whitehaven. He then subsequently missed their win over Leeds on Friday.

Head Coach Kristian Woolf confirmed Grace was looking at around the same time frame as forward Sione Mata’utia. Mata’utia has been missing since the win over Warrington.

Woolf told the club website: “Regan is going to be another three or four weeks and will be a similar sort of time frame to Sione Mata’utia. It is likely to be four weeks, but we hope it could possibly be shorter.

“It was just bad luck with the way he actually landed in the tackle at Whitehaven.”

St Helens to welcome back trio

Despite the blow to Grace, there was better news on the injury front. Alex Walmsley, Matty Lees and Will Hopoate are all expected to return this week.

The champions take on Catalans for the second time this season, having previously beat them in round one.

Walmsley has not featured since the win over Warrington. He was named in the squad to face Leeds last week, but just missed out.

Hopoate has also not featured since the Warrington match, and was also close to returning last week, but Woolf decided not to take a risk.

Finally, Lees will return after aggravating an ankle in their surprise defeat at Toulouse.

On the trio, Woolf added: “Al will be back. He is 100 per cent right.

“He was very close last week, but there are just a few boxes to be ticked before you can be 100 per cent confident that a player can come back and play from a hamstring injury.

“It was not a risk worth taking last week given who he is and what we have coming up this time of the year and the games we have to look forward to. It was a smart decision.

“Matty Lees will be right. He had an ankle injury from the Warrington game – and probably in hindsight did not get the decision right playing him in Toulouse. He aggravated it and meant that he had to have a little bit longer after that.

“Will Hopoate is similar to Al, and he had not quite ticked every box to give a reassurance that he was ready to come back from a hamstring, so we held him back for a week.”

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