WHILE the Warrington Wolves squad has a largely clean bill of health, there are a couple of exceptions.

Four players are currently training separately from the main group on their camp in Portugal as they recover from injury.

Prop Joe Philbin and outside back Connor Wrench continue their recoveries from ACL injuries sustained last year while middle-unit players James Harrison and Tom Whitehead are nursing shorter-term knocks.

Harrison is still being troubled by a knee injury he suffered before Christmas while youngster Whitehead has a hamstring issue.

However, head coach Daryl Powell is confident neither will miss too much more of training.

“Jimmy hurt his knee in training just before Christmas and it’s still troubling him a little bit,” he said.

“He’s running again, but he’s still got a little bit of pain there. I’m hoping he’ll be back running with the team towards the back end of this week before we head home.

“Then he can start progressing as he was having an outstanding pre-season before this happened.

“Whitey’s just picked up a little tweak of his hamstring that will probably keep him out for another week or so.

“He’ll start running again when we get back to England, so he’s not too bad.”

Philbin has been impressing coaching and medical staff with his recovery having performed excellently in fitness drills during the camp.

He suffered his injury against Hull FC last June and while he is not expected to be fit for the opening game of the season against Leeds Rhinos on February 16, he is unlikely to miss too many matches.

Wrench, who was struck down by the dreaded ACL against Toulouse in August, has also been doing some light running but the target for his return remains the end of April at the earliest.

“I don’t think he’s far away at all – he just has to go through some contact protocols to make sure he’s ready,” Powell said of Philbin.

“We did a yo-yo test yesterday and he’s ahead of a lot of the middles, so he’s in great nick.

“Wrenchy has had a little bit of a run today and is looking good although he’s a bit further back down the road in his recovery.

“Nick (Murphy, club physio) has done an awesome job with those guys with how hard he works with them to get them back as quickly as possible. He has to be commended.”

After two full days of training at Brown’s Sports in Vilamoura, the players have been given time off today before their final two days of work.

Powell outlined what is in store for the players before they return to England on Saturday.

“We’ve put the players under pressure over the last couple of days. We’ve worked them hard and they’ve responded pretty well to it,” he said.

“We’re a little bit ahead of where we thought we’d be in terms of the amount of work we’ve got done, so we’ll back off them a bit tomorrow and have a little bit more of a tactical session.

“Friday will then be more of a replication of a game – that will be a really tough day.

“We’re trying to keep the pressure we put them under as game-related as possible – that’s where we’re at now and the boys have been class.

“They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do and handled whatever we’ve thrown at them.

“It needed to be tough and we intended it to be tough, but the guys have handled it really well.”