{"id":418474,"date":"2026-02-10T18:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418474\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T18:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:38:07","slug":"st-helens-boss-mark-percival-update-ahead-of-super-league-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/418474\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens boss’ Mark Percival update ahead of Super League start"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Percival is facing a race against the clock to feature for St Helens in Friday night\u2019s Super League season opener away at Warrington Wolves.<\/p>\n

Club legend Percival is now into the final year of his Saints<\/a> contract and is believed to be on his way out of the exit door come the end of the year, as first reported by LoveRugbyLeague.<\/p>\n

That exit has come on the back of Saints pulling out of a two-year deal tabled the centre\u2019s way over fitness concerns, with the veteran having had surgery on his ankle in the off-season.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old missed a large chunk of action at the back end of the 2025 campaign through a foot-related issue, and may now miss the start of the 2026 season through injury too.<\/p>\n

Want more Love Rugby League? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> and ensure you never miss our exclusives and breaking news!<\/p>\n

St Helens coach issues Mark Percival update ahead of Super League opener<\/p>\n

Saints \u2013 who beat Championship outfit Workington Town 98-2 in the Challenge Cup Third Round last weekend \u2013 travel to the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night, with that game marking the start of a new era in Super League<\/a> under Paul Rowley.<\/p>\n

Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon, head coach Rowley issued an update on Percival.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201c(Curtis) Sironen, (Mark) Percival and (Noah) Stephens, none of them were fit last week, that\u2019s why they didn\u2019t play.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome may make this week, and some won\u2019t. But whatever it looks like come match day, it\u2019ll be a strong team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Percival) is not far off, but he\u2019s in that group of players that have just been carrying slight knocks or getting to the end of their rehab following post-season operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure about this week, it might come too soon for him, but we\u2019re looking forward to having him back in contention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Rowley confirmed the news of skipper Matty Lees\u2019 long-term absence due to a knee injury, as reported earlier this week by LoveRugbyLeague.<\/p>\n

The Saints \u00a0detailed: \u201cWe\u2019re still waiting on a specialist appointment he\u2019s got to go to, but he\u2019ll be out for several weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe won\u2019t require an operation, that\u2019s the positive, it\u2019s just a lengthy rehab process he\u2019ll need to go through when we\u2019ve got some clarity from the surgeon.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll have a reset and come back in Round 10 or 11 as a brand new all signing, all dancing Matty Lees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Percival is facing a race against the clock to feature for St Helens in Friday night\u2019s Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-418474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}