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Bevan French is among the Wigan Warriors players who could return to action in Friday’s derby, but Junior Nsemba is set for a longer spell on the sidelines than expected.
Head coach Matt Peet has confirmed that French, Liam Marshall and Noah Hodkinson are all likely to be available for selection come Friday after overcoming respective injuries.
French and Marshall are returning from hamstring injuries while Hodkinson has recovered from a fractured skull.
All their returns are significant given injuries to other players in the same positions, with French’s return clearly the headline given his exploits.
“We’ve got a few sessions to knock over yet, but hopefully they’ll be in contention,” Peet said. “We’ll see a quality player. Your players in those positions, to have a bit of consistency in those spine positions is a luxury we’ve not really had. But I feel like we’ve improved how we’ve dealt with that.
“Some young players have stepped up, namely Jack (Farrimond) and George (Marsden). Adam Keighran’s played his part there as well, so it has been a challenge without Bev.”
Wigan’s Nsemba blow
However, the news isn’t as positive on Nsemba, the back-rower who has been in tremendous form this year. He suffered a hamstring injury at Magic Weekend which was set to keep him out for four weeks, but is now facing a longer spell out of action.
“Junior’s had a setback, actually, so it’s going to be a while yet,” Peet confirmed.
“It’ll be another, at least, probably around five weeks from now. So we re-scanned it and it’s not where it needed to be.
“It’s disappointing. Every club’s going through it. It doesn’t make it any easier every time.
It’s just a news story, isn’t it? But for the players and coaches, particularly the players, you see it across the competition, these lads, they commit so much. I’m not just talking about Junior at all, but whenever you see a lad get injured, it’s disappointing, isn’t it?
“We all want to see the talent on the field. A competition is certainly about durability and timing of things and how you can keep the train on the tracks through those periods, which every club’s going through.”
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