Warrington Wolves captain suffers nine fractures to his face

Warrington Wolves’ club captain suffered nine separate fractures to his jaw and eye-socket during the first half of Friday’s victory at St Helens and has undergone surgery this week.

Burgess confirmed he expects to be without his skipper for around two months, meaning he is likely to miss what remains of the Super League regular season.

“He had surgery yesterday and he’s not brilliant,” the Wire head coach said.

“He’s on the road to recovery now and it’s part of the game, but it’s a really bad fracture – he had nine fractures in his face.

“It’s his eye-socket and jaw repaired so he’s in a bad way but he’s in good spirits.

“I’d say he’ll be close to eight weeks – with him having his jaw and his eye-socket done, the jaw takes a bit longer so it will be close to that.”

Stefan Ratchford came off injured during the first half of Friday's win at St Helens (Image: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com)

Warrington Wolves injury update ahead of Wigan Warriors clash

Ratchford joins a growing list of absentees in Burgess’ first-team squad, with James Harrison also missing for Friday’s trip to Wigan Warriors and next week’s home game against Hull KR following his sending-off at the Totally Wicked Stadium.

The likes of Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Josh Thewlis (both shoulder), Toby King (hamstring) and Jordy Crowther (ankle) are suffering with shorter-term injuries and of those, Burgess was only able to fully rule Fitzgibbon out of the top-of-the-table clash.

However, he said there were risks to weigh up when it comes to the fitness of those on the brink of returning.

“We’ve not finalised it yet as we’ve still got a couple of days to go,” he said when asked about the shape his squad is in for the trip to the Brick Community Stadium.

“We’re hanging in there so whoever we can get back on board, we’ll see what we’ve got. We’ll know a bit more by Thursday.

“We’re getting closer to guys being back – Lachie Fitz probably won’t make it but others are getting closer.

“We’re getting to the time of year where everyone is busted in some way, so you’ve got to figure out the risk and reward with what’s right for them. We’re in that little space at the moment.”

Lachlan Fitzgibbon is among Wire's injury concerns (Image: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com)