THERE is mixed news for Warrington Wolves on the injury front ahead of their trip to Hull FC on Saturday.
Indeed, head coach Sam Burgess confirmed at least one of their recently-injured quartet of players will return for the Round 15 fixture, but there is more doubt about the other three.
The man definitely coming back into contention is Josh Thewlis, who dropped out of the side for Friday’s 25-14 defeat to Salford Red Devils.
A pectoral muscle injury kept the goal-kicking winger out of action, but Burgess confirmed he would be back in the team to face the Black and Whites.
However, star half-back George Williams, who also missed the Salford game with a calf problem, is more doubtful to be involved.
As captain of the England team, Williams will likely be named in Shaun Wane’s squad for the mid-season Test against France in Toulouse next weekend if fit but Burgess insists there is a risk to weigh up as to whether or not he returns for his club before then.
“George is the one who’s more in doubt with anyone,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a risk and we do have a week off after the game, so it’s whether or not we take that risk. We’re not sure yet.
“Thewlis will be back, which will be nice for us.
“We miss him when he’s not out there for us – he does a lot of hard stuff for the team so he’ll be good to have back in the side.”
The other two injury doubts are in the forwards, with Lachlan Fitzgibbon (back) and Jordy Crowther (ankle) picking up knocks during the Challenge Cup Final defeat to Wigan Warriors earlier this month.
While he says Fitzgibbon has “an outside chance” of being involved on Humberside, Burgess says neither is likely to play at this stage.
“Neither of them will play,” he said of Fitzgibbon and Crowther while also confirming there were no fresh injury concerns.
“Lachie is an outside chance, but I’d probably say no.
“Other than that, we’ve pulled up okay from the weekend apart from a few bruised egos.
“We probably needed the longer turnaround. We reviewed the Salford game straight away, then had a couple of days off and got some good work done early in the week.
“Now we’re fine-tuning it leading into the game on Saturday.
“The players are feeling much more refreshed – you can see it in their faces.”
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