Wigan’s injury waiting game continues as coach shares latest on Bevan French and Luke Thompson

Wigan Warriors’ wait for key duo Bevan French and Luke Thompson to return from injury will go on for at least a couple of weeks, head coach Matt Peet has confirmed.

The Warriors have been without star man French since mid-June, while experienced prop Thompson has been sidelined since early July.

Both players have featured 15 times apiece across all competitions for Peet’s side this term, but have been struggling with calf injuries.

Half-back French has been included in Wigan’s initial 21-man squad for last two weeks, but didn’t feature in either their win at Warrington Wolves or last Friday night’s defeat at home against table-toppers at Hull KR.

Wigan’s injury waiting game continues as coach shares latest on Bevan French and Luke Thompson

After Wigan’s win at Warrington, boss Peet said that Thompson had the better chance of returning for the clash with KR.

But ahead of this weekend’s home game against Wakefield Trinity, the Cherry and Whites chief has now confirmed that both French and Thompson are still a few weeks away from making a return.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Peet explained: “Luke will be a couple of weeks, potentially more, and Bevan could be a similar timeframe.

“He (French) had a check-up scan earlier this week and it (his calf) is healing at a tired rate, so it’s about taking him through his progressions.

“(With Luke), it’s more been that it hasn’t healed as quickly as we first anticipated when we had a check-up scan.

“It’s not a re-injury, but it did take longer than we’d first hoped.”

There is some positive news on the injury front for the Warriors, though, with both Junior Nsemba and Jack Farrimond back fit and in contention for Sunday’s clash with Wakefield.

Towering back-rower Nsemba sat out of the defeat to KR under concussion protocols, while young half-back Farrimond missed out with a shoulder problem, but played for the reserves the following day.

Peet detailed: “Junior’s available. We’ll make a decision (on whether he plays) later in the week.

“Jack’s good to go. He put his hand up to play reserves, and fair play to him. Earlier in the week, he was very sore through his A/C joint, so that made that decision for us (that he wouldn’t play against Hull KR).

“But he was very keen after the game to get some minutes under his belt. He went pretty well in the reserves.”

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