Warrington Wolves selection headaches for Wigan Warriors trip

A squad that was starting to become stretched by injuries will now be minus two more players at least for the trip to the Brick Community Stadium, with Stefan Ratchford and James Harrison ruled out.

Ratchford suffered a facial fracture during the first half of Friday’s victory at St Helens, with the incident coming shortly after Harrison had been shown a red card for which he has now been handed a two-match suspension.

Here, we have a look at some of the decisions facing Burgess as he attempts to build a team capable of inflicting a first home defeat since May 2023 on Matt Peet’s men…

More centre woes

Wire’s outside-back stocks are coming increasingly under pressure, with Ratchford’s injury adding him to a list of absentees that already includes Toby King (hamstring), Connor Wrench (ACL) and Josh Thewlis (shoulder).

Wrench will miss the remainder of the season and King is set for at least another week on the sidelines, while Burgess has been reluctant to put a timeline on Thewlis’ recovery.

If he is fit to play, it may well be a simple case of him resuming his regular role on the right wing with Arron Lindop, who has been filling in, moving across to his more natural left-centre role.

Any return for Thewlis would also be well-timed in the goal-kicking department given Ratchford’s injury, with Josh Drinkwater having taken the tee when the club captain went off.

However, if nobody is available to return, Burgess is likely to have to turn to another of his younger players to fill the void.

Full-back Cai Taylor-Wray and outside-back Jake Thewlis – the younger brother of Josh – both made their senior debuts in a much-changed Wire side that lost narrowly to Wigan in Round 13 and could be in contention to come in again.

There is also Zac Bardsley-Rowe – a centre by trade – who is yet to make his debut but has played in the Championship on dual-registration for Widnes Vikings over the past fortnight.

Jake Thewlis made his senior debut against Wigan in Round 13 (Image: Olly Hassell/SWpix.com)

Movement in the pack?

Another potential solution for Burgess would be to stick with how he readjusted to Ratchford’s withdrawal in-game, which was the moving of Ben Currie from loose forward to centre.

That would arguably be the solution that would require the least amount of reshuffling, with Luke Yates then coming into the number 13 role and Max Wood coming onto the bench.

However, Harrison’s suspension has opened up a hole in the middle unit that would need to be filled, which may tempt Burgess to keep Currie in the pack and looking elsewhere for an outside-back solution.

That way, it would just be a case of either Yates or Zane Musgrove coming into the starting front row alongside Paul Vaughan and Wood coming onto the bench, leaving the remainder of the interchanges unchanged.

Much could depend on whether or not Jordy Crowther is fit to return from an ankle injury – he was named in the 21-man squad for the St Helens game but was always odds-against to play.

If he is able to come back onto the bench, there would be more flexibility in terms of Currie being able to move into the outside-backs.

Luke Yates could make his first Wire start at Wigan (Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)