Warrington Wolves star ruled out of St Helens clash

The England captain was a surprise absentee from The Wire's 21-man squad for Round 26 having dropped out along with centre Peter Mata'utia and prop Gil Dudson.

In his pre-match press conference, Chambers confirmed Williams had been carrying a thigh injury for several weeks and that the injury has got to a point where he needs rest.

He also confirmed that academy graduate Leon Hayes would start Friday's game in his place, with the youngster set for his maiden first-team game of the season and his home Super League debut.

"He’s got a bit of a thigh pull – he’s been nursing it for weeks now," Chambers said of Williams.

"We’ve had it scanned and it’s not going to get any better if we don’t give him a bit of rest now.

"It is what it is – we’re at the stage of the season where players pick up these kinds of injuries.

"As George does, he battles through and in all honesty, he’d probably be willing to go again but we’ve got Leon Hayes there and he plays.

"We view him as the future of our club moving forward, so he’s in."

Williams also spent a spell out of the side earlier this year with a hamstring injury - a period which also included the last meeting with St Helens in July.

Chambers said their talisman could have played had they "desperately needed" him but that taking him out of the firing line was "for his own good" with a toe problem also starting to rear its head.

"George will play with most things – he’s that sort of individual – so this is a tough one on him.

"He’s running around at the moment in some titanium trainers at the moment because there’s a joint issue in his toe, but he just gets on.

"Sometimes, you have to remove him for his own good because he’ll play with anything.

"This is something that isn’t going to improve if we didn’t give him a week off to stop the volume on it.

"If we needed him desperately at any time, he would play."

Chambers also confirmed Mata'utia and Dudson were both missing with hamstring issues and that Connor Wrench would start in the centres in the former's place.

Joe Philbin is set to replace the latter on the bench having recovered from his own hamstring injury that ruled him out of Sunday's loss to Salford Red Devils, with Sam Kasiano also fit to play having been taken ill at half-time at the weekend.

Peter Mata'utia has been ever-present for Wire this season but will miss Friday's game with a hamstring issue (Image: SWPix.com)