St Helens keen to tie down off-contract prop as Konrad Hurrell contract claim made
Paul Wellens has hit out at the state of officiating again.
St Helens are readying themselves to offer Jake Wingfield a long-term deal to remain with the club in 2026 and beyond: but the future of Konrad Hurrell is less clear.
Wingfield’s contract expires at the end of this season, though there is an automatic one-year extension which would be triggered based on a specific number of appearances. However, Wingfield has not featured for the past month due to a head knock suffered against Warrington.
He could return this weekend for the Magic Weekend clash against Leeds Rhinos though, with the Saints due to name their squad on Thursday.
And Wellens has dropped a clear hint that the club have no intention to let Wingfield leave for 2026.
He said: “We very much want Jake to part of this club’s long term future. He’s a quality person and a really good player as well.
“Jake has had a really unfortunate time with injuries in the early part of his career and what’s really important for him is probably not to get too distracted by contract talk.
“I understand you do need to have stability there and I would support him in that, but get back and get playing consistent and regular rugby and once he starts to do that, there’s no doubt he’s a quality player who will play a lot of games for this game. We see him very much a part of our future.”
However, Wellens was slightly more coy on the future of Hurrell. The Tongan is yet to feature for the Saints in 2025 thus far having played dual-registration for Halifax Panthers.
An injury then sidelined him several weeks ago but he is closing in on a return – however, the Saints are yet to have any discussions for 2026.
“We’ve not really had any discussions around his future yet primarily because Konrad has been out of the team, injured and not played,” Wellens said.
“Until that starts to happen and Konrad is playing regular, there’s no point in having those discussions.”
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