Paul Wellens explains shock St Helens boost ahead of play-offs as squad update issued

St Helens boss Paul Wellens has confirmed that Lewis Murphy will play this weekend against Castleford Tigers, despite having been told he would not feature again this year.

At the end of May as Saints were thumped 34-4 at Hull KR, winger Murphy was forced off with a quad injury which he struggled to recover from.

Come mid-August, head coach Wellens told the media that Murphy’s season was over after he suffered a recurrence of that same quad injury.

But just a month on from that, he’s now been named in Wellens‘ 21-man squad for Friday night’s Round 27 clash at home against Castleford, and the boss has confirmed he will indeed make his return to the field.

Paul Wellens explains shock St Helens boost ahead of play-offs as squad update issued

Off-season recruit Murphy has scored six tries in nine appearances for Saints so far, and Wellens confirmed his return during Wednesday afternoon’s pre-match press conference.

The Red V’s chief explained: “He was told it was season over when he got injured.

“Even at the time when we didn’t think there was a chance, Lewis just said, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to try and put myself in a position to make it back before the end of the year.’

“Down to his hard work, he’s put himself in that position. He’s trained really well and he’s feeling comfortable, so Lewis will play at the weekend and we hope to get a good response from him.

“If we can get him back fit and firing, it gives us some more strength and competition for places really does hot up again.

“In the last few weeks, we know that he’s been making good progress, and as a medical team we’ve continued to push him.

“Not (pushing him) to the point of being reckless, but challenging him a bit more knowing that there are some big games around the corner and we are running out of time.

“Lewis has applied himself excellently and it’s credit to him, he’ll play at the weekend and that’s purely down to his hard work.”

Wellens has made seven changes to his 21-man squad in total, with Alex Walmsley (failed HIA) and George Delaney (one-match ban) forced to drop out.

Mark Percival, Daryl Clark, Matty Lees, Curtis Sironen and Harry Robertson are the others who won’t feature on Friday night, with Wellens admitting: “A couple of them have got niggles.

“All of them could have played this week, let me stress that, but a few had bumps and bruises that you’re only going to make things worse with by playing.

“It’s important for those guys who have played a fair bit of rugby this year that they go into next week feeling really good so that they can have an uninterrupted training week and prepare for what is a big game for us.”

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