St Helens duo to miss rest of season as new Noah Stephens update given

St Helens look likely to be without both Nene Macdonald and Jake Davies for the rest of the Super League season due to injury, Eamon O’Carroll has confirmed.

The Saints will send a heavily-depleted squad to Leigh Leopards on Friday night for a game they must win. In total, they have 17 members of their first-team squad out, which includes the suspended Jackson Hastings and Daniel Suluka-Fifita.

And Macdonald and Davies look set to play no further part in 2026 for the Saints, O’Carroll has confirmed.

St Helens rocked by more injuries

Macdonald has been plagued by knee issues all year and those problems have resurfaced. The Papua New Guinea international was attempting to play through the pain at Leigh on Friday, but he has been unable to get himself fit.

And O’Carroll conceded the issue will likely end his season prematurely – with a shin problem that Davies has been managing for a number of weeks also now catching up with him.

O’Carroll said: “Nene has got an issue with his knee. He was trying to play through the pain and he might have been in a position to play but he can’t.” When asked if he thought Macdonald would be back next week, O’Carroll said: “I’m not sure, that might be him done.”

On Davies, the Saints interim coach continued: “Jake is really unlucky; he’s had an issue with his leg and he’s been complaining with having some pain in his shin but we’ve managed it and he’s been good.

“But he’s started to struggle, we’ve had it looked at and we have to offload him for a little bit now. So that could well be a couple of weeks. He might not feature again this year but we’ve found it out at the right time before it’s got too severe.”

Noah Stephens latest update

O’Carroll also revealed that Curtis Sironen remains unavailable after being hospitalised for a fortnight due to an infection in his knee. He lost a significant amount of weight, and as such is not match fit to feature for the club.

Meanwhile, O’Carroll admitted young forward Noah Stephens was ‘doing really well’ after a horror injury that ended his season prematurely in June.

Stephens suffered a complex nerve injury that previous Saints coach Paul Rowley admitted could see him spend ‘years’ on the sidelines if the worst case fears came to fruition.

O’Carroll did not offer a concrete update on a return date, but admitted the forward was back with the Saints group and progressing.

He said: “That’s an ongoing process. There’s not too much clarity on that but to give everyone some reassurance, Noah is doing really well, he’s coming in and got a smile on his face but most importantly he’s in and around the group.”

Oscar Knox will make his debut at Leigh on Friday night, O’Carroll confirmed, with a number of youngsters set to come in as the injury situation at the Saints continues to deepen. If they lose, their 64-year run of always making the play-offs will come to an end.