St Helens star George Whitby suffers horror ACL injury

St Helens youngster George Whitby has suffered a dreaded ACL injury.

The halfback, widely tipped to be one of the club’s future stars, had scans which showed he has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament, and injury that will require surgery and keep him off the field for around nine months of action.

It is a horrid blow for both Saints and Whitby, who will now miss the pre-season and large chunk of the 2027 season. The 20-year-old had only made his comeback from a knee injury last week in the defeat to Hull FC, having missed the previous seven games.

“It’s the opposite knee to which he’d had an issue with,” interim coach Eamon O’Carroll said. “It’s a real shame for George. We’ve had a good chat with him and got around him, he’s in a good place, he’s positive although he’s very disappointed but he understands that this is part of the journey and he can certainly use this, although he might not feel like that’s the case now, to make him better in the long term.

“I think having people like Jonny Lomax around him as well is a huge positive, Jonny’s been through that three times and gone on and won five competitions I think in total, Johnny. It’s difficult at the moment but what he has got is a number of highly experienced players in and around him who are currently injured at the minute as well.

“You get to see the lads for eighty minutes if you’re not in the environment but the work he does in and around the environment, how diligent he is in terms of his preparation and the way he lives his life, it’s fantastic, so it’s real unfortunate for him but everyone’s around him, the club will support him and they’ve got some good lads around him there that’ll help him through that and George will be better for this experience.”

O’Carroll added: “Your career is never sort of simple, there’s always bits of adversity and this is a fairly significant one but he’s probably in the best place for me, I think our medical team are fantastic, our S&C staff and as I’ve mentioned before, some of the senior players there around him, they’ll get around him.”

St Helens’ spine recruitment plans

Since his debut in 2024, Whitby has made 20 appearances for the club while also appearing in the Championship for Halifax Panthers and Salford Red Devils.

His absence will put further scrutiny on the club’s squad depth in the short-term and halfback roster in he mid-term. As it stands, Jonny Lomax and Jackson Hastings, two of their senior halfbacks, are off-contract at the end of the season, leaving Saints looking light in the creativity department for 2027 at this point in time.

Harry Robertson has moved into the spine in recent weeks while Tristan Sailor and Jack Welsby are other options, though the pair have most recently found homes at centre and fullback respectively.

“I think those conversations are ongoing,” O’Carroll said. “I think the club’s fully aware of the situation and look, we may as well be honest, it’s probably been a bit of an issue for the last couple of years, hasn’t it? So one thing that I’ve got confidence in is the conversations that I’m involved in, the club are fully aware and want to get after that in terms of recruitment, but there’s also a bit there where they’ll hold their nerves about bringing the right people in, not just the right player.”