Warrington suffer injury crisis

Warrington lost all of their four substitutes after suffering four match ending injuries in their 66-12 win over Wakefield.

Brett Hodgson, Ben Westwood, Simon Grix and Rhys Evans all left the field injured and failed to return to action, which will raise concerns for coach Tony Smith as his side’s hunt for pole position heading into the play offs rests on the next two matches.

The Wolves travel to Perpignan to face Catalan next week. They then host Wigan in the first weekend of September, which could decide the destination of the League Leaders Shield.

Warrington lost Hodgson early in the game after the 33 year-old left the field with a quad strain. Chris Bridge replaced Hodgson as nominated goal kicker, converting ten of the Wolves’ tries.

Westwood fell to ground later in the first half after suffering from medial ligament damage. Despite heroic efforts to get back on his feet and rejoin his team mates, he was forced off down the tunnel and had to see out the remainder of the game in the stands.

Youngster Rhys Evans also sat the rest of the game in the stands on crutches after he suspected to have broken his toe, while Grix suffered from a strained groin.

Smith said: “We were down to one remaining substitute at half time and for the last 17 minutes we didn’t have any.

“I think I only used five substitutes in total. A lot of our players played a lot more game time than we planned and hoped for.”

It was the second time this season the Wolves have finished a match with 13 fit players or less, after losing five players to injury in their opening game of the season against Huddersfield in Cardiff.