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St Helens head coach Paul Wellens has spoken about the \u201chuge headache\u201d he has fitting Tristan Sailor and Jack Welsby into his squad for the upcoming matches, starting with Hull FC on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Welsby returned from his 11-week injury this past Sunday<\/a>, coming on off the bench to get some much-needed minutes and that saw Sailor move to hooker.<\/p>\n However, the Australian clearly won\u2019t be deployed there from the off against Hull FC and questions over which man plays full-back and what the role of the other one looks like loom large.<\/p>\n Prior to Welsby\u2019s injury, Sailor found home on the wing but both Kyle Feldt and Owen Dagnall are two of the competition\u2019s form players and that\u2019s largely down to the success and form of Sailor in the number one position.<\/p>\n Speaking to the media at his weekly press conference ahead of Friday\u2019s home clash with Hull FC<\/a>, Paul Wellens explained that the return of England\u2019s full-back has created a welcome headache.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it\u2019s both. It\u2019s a huge positive, but also a huge headache when you\u2019re selecting a team,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the 21-man squad that we\u2019ve announced today, we\u2019re in a healthy position at the moment, and quite naturally there will be some disappointed players who miss out, and players that realistically are worth a jersey, but I can only pick 17 players, so there\u2019s some tough calls I need to make.\u201d<\/p>\n St Helens boss rues headache as Welsby returns<\/p>\n That 21-man squad saw just one change with Curtis Sironen returning after his recent HIA as Jake Davies dropped out with St Helens only really missing Konrad Hurrell (match fitness), Jake Wingfield (ankle) and Lewis Murphy (quad), the latter two being season-ending injuries<\/a>.<\/p>\n On those headaches, Wellens explained that his team have embraced the squad-first mentality and noted players have been, and will have to continue, making sacrifices.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I know and what will be the case, is that if we are to achieve our ambitions this year, and we have very high ambitions, it\u2019s going to take a collective effort,\u201d argued Wellens.<\/p>\n \u201cSo the 17 that play this weekend have got a job to do, but I\u2019m pretty certain it\u2019s not going to be the same 17 every week from now to the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n On Welsby and Sailor specifically, he revealed: \u201cThere may be a solution but quite naturally, you can\u2019t give every single player what they want all the time. What you do need is players within your team who are, at times, prepared to do what\u2019s best for the team, even though, on occasions, that won\u2019t suit what\u2019s best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Wellens pointed to Sailor\u2019s spell at nine on Sunday<\/a> as an example of that, stating: \u201cIt\u2019s really good for me to know that we\u2019ve got players within our squad who are prepared to do those types of things.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Wellens discusses team selection for Hull FC clash<\/p>\n As for the team selection, he confirmed that there \u201cwill not be wholesale changes\u201d suggesting that it could be a very similar looking squad, albeit with Curtis Sironen returning.<\/p>\n He explained: \u201cThe team\u2019s performing well. Obviously, Curtis has been really strong for us in the weeks leading up to, obviously, getting his head injury at Wakefield, so he will come back into the team, whether that\u2019s off the bench or starting. I\u2019m not quite sure, but he will certainly play.\u201d<\/p>\n Another second-row forward who returned last week was Joe Batchelor and Wellens hailed that performance, suggesting he too could be offered more minutes in the matchday squad.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI think the game at the weekend was perfect for Joe. Obviously, he\u2019d had a couple of reserve hit outs, which were good for him, but he got some meaningful minutes and I thought he had a strong performance as well, which was really pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n Deon Cross was also named to the 21-man squad for a second week in a row although he featured for the reserves last week, however, Wellens noted the balance in his outside backs at the moment with the experience of Mark Percival and Kyle Feldt aiding the development of Owen Dagnall and Harry Robertson respectively. With those four players flying, Cross could find it hard to force a return to the squad.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd3b \ud835\udc7a\ud835\udc78\ud835\udc7c\ud835\udc68\ud835\udc6b \ud835\udc75\ud835\udc6c\ud835\udc7e\ud835\udc7a<\/p>\n Head Coach Paul Wellens has named his 21-man Saints squad that will face @hullfcofficial<\/a> on Friday night in @SuperLeague<\/a>!<\/p>\n Read more \ud83d\ude07 https:\/\/t.co\/6IlsZyXMmI<\/a> #COYS<\/a> | St Helens Flooring<\/p>\n \u2014 St.Helens R.F.C. (@Saints1890) August 20, 2025<\/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 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/srl-logo.png\"\/){kind=logo}
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