St Helens: Curtis Sironen injury latest as Paul Wellens confirms possible triple boost for Huddersfield clash
Curtis Sironen has picked up another hamstring injury. Photo by James Heaton/News Images.
St Helens back-rower Curtis Sironen is set for another spell on the sidelines with a hamstring blow suffered in the win over Salford.
The Australian forward was named on the bench for his first game since June in the clash at the Salford Stadium, but was later forced from the field.
However, the 30-year-old is set to be sidelined again with just seven regular Super League fixture remaining for Saints.
Wellens confirmed that outside-back Will Hopoate is expected to miss up to six weeks with a fresh hamstring blow, and the head coach confirmed on Sironen: “Curtis is very similar.
“He’s suffered a reoccurrence of an injury.
“Behind the scenes as a club, performance staff, coaching staff and medical staff, we’re working really hard to try and figure out why we’ve had more of those type of injuries this year and reoccurrences of those injuries.
“What we don’t do there is point the finger and blame anybody, it’s important that we look at our own programmes and how we can better put our players in a position so these injuries firstly don’t happen or just don’t have the reoccurrences.”
St Helens number 16 Sironen has been limited to just 11 appearances in Super League this year, scoring twice.
St Helens potential triple boost for Huddersfield fixture
The Saints boss however confirmed a potential triple boost for Sunday’s Super League match against Huddersfield, with the delayed Round 1 fixture slotting in during Wembley weekend as Hull KR face Leigh Leopards in the Men’s Challenge Cup final.
Wellens says that Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Joe Batchelor and Jon Bennison could return for the home clash, although admitted no risks will be taken with the play-offs closing in.
“All three are a chance of playing this week,” Wellens said.
“All three have trained with us today and we’ll monitor the response over the next 24 hours.
“Where the squad is at at the moment, and I’ve said this multiple times, but we’re not taking risks with players.
“We’re not taking risks with Joe Batchelor, Louie or Jon Bennison. We are a team that is looking towards the back end of the year whilst we still know the importance of picking up results and still getting points in the bag that we need to secure.
“There’s a real balancing act there, but we are are confident at this moment in time that we’ll at least have two out of three of those blokes back.”
James Bell will miss the game through a one-match suspension for Grade B dangerous contact, while Sione Mata’utia returns from his two-game ban.