Kristian Woolf has confirmed that Regan Grace will miss the start of the season after picking up a bicep injury in training.
Woolf, who spoke to Saints TV earlier today, says that Grace needed surgery on a bicep injury picked up in training which will see him miss the first month of the new season.
He also revealed Morgan Knowles and Curtis Sironen will also sit out Friday’s game as they continue to build up their fitness levels.
Woolf told Saints TV: “We’ve got a couple of blokes with injuries and a couple of blokes who we just think are a little bit underdone as well through different circumstances.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had a bit of a drama with Regan Grace where he’s picked up a bit of an injury in training and that’s needed a little bit of work in terms of surgery and he’ll miss most likely the first month of footie.
“Morgan Knowles is a little underdone. He just had that off-season surgery and it just means he hasn’t quite done the running and quite got the contact in him for us to be comfortable that he goes out and plays and isn’t a risk we want to take. Obviously he’s really important to us so he wont play.
“Curtis Sironen had a bit of drama with Covid issues over the break and missed a fair chunk of training so again just to make sure we’re not putting him in a risky situation we’re going to save him and just get a little bit more running and contact in training and get him ready to start the season really well.”
Sione Mata’utia will also miss the game after he picked up a one game ban in the 2021 Grand Final which is carried over to 2022. He will return for the opening game of the new campaign against Catalans.
You can hear Woolf on Saints TV here.