St Helens sweating over trio’s fitness for bumper Wigan clash as ominous update issued

St Helens are still waiting to find out whether Nene Macdonald can feature in Friday night’s derby against Wigan Warriors, with one of Alex Walmsley and George Delaney still set to be sidelined.

Papua New Guinea international Macdonald missed Saints’ home victory against Catalans Dragons last weekend through his ongoing knee issue.

The centre had the knee drained the day prior to that win against the Dragons, but experienced a negative reaction come gameday and was unable to feature.

A few days on, it still remains to be seen whether he will be fit to line up away against rivals Wigan on Friday night.

St Helens sweating over trio’s fitness for bumper Wigan clash as ominous update issued

Saints assistant Lee Briers undertook pre-match media duties on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the trip to The Brick Community Stadium.

Providing an update on Macdonald, he said: “I think there’s a bit of everything there, I’m sure the medical team at this moment in time are getting it checked out.

“If it needs any further investigation, that’ll happen.

“It’s just a shame we’ve not been able to see Nene at his full (potential) at the moment, but hopefully with a few games to go, he can get through.

“I’m not medically aware of any surgeries happening, I know he’s had it drained and we’re just waiting on that.”

Elsewhere, Saints have been without forward duo Walmsley and Delaney for the last two weeks, owing to their failed concussion assessments during the last derby against Wigan, which came at Magic Weekend at the start of this month.

Asked about the pair, Briers responded: “There’ll possibly be one back this week, and possibly one not.”

Positive news for Saints

Head coach Paul Rowley has been dealing with a huge injury crisis on Merseyside, with 17 senior players unavailable last weekend, including off-season recruit Macdonald.

There were no fresh injuries picked up against Catalans though, and there’s potentially further positive news on the horizon in the shape of two stars returning against Wigan.

Briers explained: “(Picking up no new injuries is) a first for a long time… hopefully our luck’s changing!

“But like with anything, the harder you work, the luckier you become. That’s what we’ve got to move forward with.

“Lewis (Murphy) will be in and around the 21-man squad this week, he’s passed and ticked all the boxes that he needs to.

“We’ve just had a real good (training) session, so we’ll see how he reacts on the back of that.

“Shane (Wright) will be in and around the 21 as well, it’s looking like he’ll be back.”

WATCH THE NEW EPISODE OF THE LRL PODCAST!