St Helens’ problems continue to mount in the midst of on-field captain Jackson Hastings being banned, with interim coach Eamon O’Carroll confirming that winger Lewis Murphy will miss the rest of the regular season.
O’Carroll didn’t set out a timeline nor did he specifically mention the play-offs, perhaps not wanting to tempt fate, though he made it clear that Murphy would not return for the ‘regular part of the season’.
The winger went down against his former club Wakefield Trinity over a week ago and scans have confirmed that he’ll miss the next three games, with O’Carroll offering an injury update when speaking to the media on Tuesday.
“Lewis, unfortunately, is going to be out for the regular part of the season,” O’Carroll confirmed.
“It’s not too serious, but obviously we’re coming to the back end now with only three weeks left, so that’s really unfortunate for Lewis as I think he was hitting some form.”
One positive piece of news was that Curtis Sironen, who is out with a knee injury, is close to return. O’Carroll said: “Siro is progressing really well, which is good, so we’re hopeful to get him involved in parts of training next week.”
Moreover, Mark Percival, who missed out last week after being named in the 21 may be considered for Friday night: “We took Percy out because he wasn’t quite ready. Again, he’s trained this week, but we’ll just see how he is.
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“We want to give Percy the best opportunity so that when he does play, he’s at his best because at his best, he is really important to us. Again, we’ll have a look and see. We’ve got a bit of thinking to do.”
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St Helens set for reshuffle in halves despite ‘getting into some rhythm’
That thinking will involve what they do at half-back, with O’Carroll admitting that it likely will lead to some form of reshuffle given that there’s no direct replacement to be parachuted in.
Shuffling players around is something St Helens have got used to in 2027 but their last two performances have been among the best all season, making this upcoming reshuffle a bitter pill to swallow.
Tristan Sailor is one who has flourished at full-back but may have to relocate into the halves, and when asked about shifting him, O’Carroll confirmed: “I think it’d be difficult to take a number of players out of their positions because I feel like we’re just getting into some rhythm. That’s the unfortunate thing.
“That’s why I’ve got some thinking to do. There’s no doubt Tristan played really well in that position, but I think the people in and around him also did.”
He’d list off: “Harry was fantastic, young Tom Humphreys, Jack Welsby, really threatening every time, Shane Wright, again, we could go through the team.
“I think it was a real complete performance and we built off the back of Wakefield, which was really pleasing. Ideally, we’d like minimal disruption, but we understand with our situation, and we’ve had to do it a number of times this year, that we may have to do that.”
