Steve McNamara reveals staggering amount of infections following Wakefield fixture

Steve McNamara was a proud head coach following Catalans’ 14-6 win over Leigh, admitting his side had the ‘worst week ever’ through injuries and sickness. 

Catalans lost back-rower Matt Whitley and centre Adam Keighran before kick-off. The side were already without injured trio Mitchell Pearce, Mike McMeeken and Tyrone May.

Sam Tomkins returned to the field, named in the halves alongside Cesar Rouge.

The Dragons were still feeling the after-effects of their opening game at Wakefield, with coach McNamara unhappy with the pitch conditions at Belle Vue.

Manu Ma’u has also returned to New Zealand earlier this week on compassionate grounds following the passing of his father.

Steve McNamara on “worst week ever”

“We’ve had the worst week ever with sickness and infections from injuries sustained in our first game at Wakefield,” McNamara said.

“We’ve lost a number of players, so to do that tonight against a very good Leigh side was incredible.

“I’m very happy with that result, we’ve had a very difficult week. We lost Manu Ma’u because his father has sadly died and he has returned to New Zealand to be with his family.

“Seven players had infections this week following injuries sustained on the pitch at Wakefield in round one.

“We had lots of sickness and this morning. Matt Whitley picked up a shoulder injury and Adam Keighran had to pull out.

“So with the situation at the moment that is a very good win for us.

“Our defence was good today, but our attack was horrible. But in our current state I can’t complain.

“It’s been the most difficult week for this club for a long time and I’m proud of the way the players have responded.

“There’s plenty of blood around in the changing room again tonight, the scabs are all off again. We’ve got seven players on antibiotics from last week so most of the team weren’t feeling too great before kick-off.

“But we don’t seem to have picked up any further problems and we’ll have some fresh players available to face Hull next week.

“We knew it would be tough, Leigh performed well last week against Salford and were perhaps unfortunate, but they’ve got some quality players in their team.”

READ NEXT: Adrian Lam believes his side “deserved to win”

FOLLOW: Keep up with all the latest on the Love Rugby League mobile app and podcast