{"id":532522,"date":"2026-04-15T16:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532522\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:54:11","slug":"st-helens-boss-praises-matty-lees-ahead-of-injury-return-but-overseas-forward-suffers-set-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/532522\/","title":{"rendered":"St Helens boss praises Matty Lees ahead of injury return but overseas forward suffers set-back"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

St Helens will welcome back star prop Matty Lees this week, as he returns to the side for the first time since early February.<\/p>\n

Lees suffered a major knee injury in the club\u2019s opening game of the season, as they travelled to Cumbria to face Workington Town.<\/p>\n

The Red Vee won that game, but it came at a cost with Lees confirmed to the sidelined for up to three months.<\/p>\n

However, in what is a huge boost for Paul Rowley\u2019s side, the England international has been able to recover quicker than first expected, and after 10 weeks, he is now fit and available for selection.<\/p>\n

Lees is a major figure within the Saints camp, and one that Rowley, who spoke to the press today, knows will have a huge influence on the side on Thursday evening when they host Hull FC in Super League.<\/p>\n

The boss said: \u201c\u2018Leesy\u2019 being back is really good news for us as a club and good news for\u00a0him as well.\u00a0It\u2019s been a long-awaited return.\u00a0So, it\u2019s the start of his journey back to peak of his powers, no doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026He\u2019s a guy who prides himself on the 1%ers\u00a0and doing the fundamentals really well, which we\u2019ve been honing in on\u00a0during this turbulent and challenging time with all the injuries.\u00a0So, it\u2019s exactly what we need.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the captain as well,\u00a0he\u2019s led by example, by his actions and we really welcome him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

St Helens overseas forward suffers set-back<\/p>\n

One man who won\u2019t be joining Lees on the field this week is Shane Wright, who was absent from the side\u2019s 21-man squad announcement earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Wright failed a HIA in the Good Friday win over Wigan Warriors, and subsequently missed the Challenge Cup clash with Catalans.<\/p>\n

The former Salford man was expected to return this week, but has had a minor set-back in his return to play.<\/p>\n

Explaining Wright\u2019s current status, the boss said: \u201c[He\u2019s] just another week on the back of his HIA.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just took a bit of a knock as well.\u00a0So, the HIA was irrelevant, really. He just needed a couple of games off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jazz Tevaga\u2019s sin-bin, Hull KR\u2019s underrated star and very early Man of Steel candidates \u2013 Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Helens will welcome back star prop Matty Lees this week, as he returns to the side for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-532522","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\/532522","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=532522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}