Salford suffer double injury blow after defeat at Wigan

Salford coach Paul Rowley has confirmed the Red Devils will be without two key players for Friday’s trip to champions St Helens.

Salford suffered injury blows to captain Elijah Taylor and full-back Ryan Brierley in Sunday’s 30-24 loss at Wigan in front of the Channel 4 cameras.

New Zealand international Taylor failed a HIA, so will be ruled out of action for the next 11 days due to the return-to-play protocol.

And Scotland international Brierley suffered a rib injury in the latter stages of the match, meaning he will miss Friday’s game against Saints whilst the club wait to find out the extent.

Speaking after the game, Rowley said: “We’ll definitely have none back for players.

“Elijah Taylor will be 11 days. Ryan Brierley is no good, they are the ones that are obvious at the minute.

“I think he got a rib injury. I’m not sure of the extent but looking at him in the dressing room, a betting man would say he’s not playing on Friday.

“(Marc) Sneyd won’t play Friday but he’ll be good after that.”

The injuries to Taylor and Brierley will be missing nine first team regulars for their trip to St Helens. Saints coach Kristian Woolf rested the bulk of his squad in their 30-10 defeat to Castleford on Friday night.

Taylor and Brierley have joined Marc Sneyd, Dan Sarginson, Joe Burgess, Shane Wright, Harvey Livett, Tim Lafai and James Greenwood on the sidelines.

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Paul Rowley proud but disappointed

Rowley was proud of his side in their narrow loss at Wigan on Sunday afternoon.

He added: “Proud but disappointed is probably the fair assessment of it.

“Overall, to throw any criticism at the group would be totally incorrect.

“I thought the effort and commitment was good. They have shown that they are good players. There are a lot of positives and a lot of things we can take from it.”

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