Chris Flannery added to St Helens injury list

Feb 19 2008

Loose forward Chris Flannery has joined St Helens’ injury list but captain Paul Sculthorpe edged closer to a comeback today when he was named in coach Daniel Anderson’s initial squad for Friday’s game at Bradford.

Flannery will be out for three to four weeks with a torn quadricep muscle sustained in last Friday’s 30-22 win over Warrington.

He joins fellow forwards Jason Cayless, Jon Wilkin and Maurie Fa’asavalu on the sidelines but centre Willie Talau returns after missing the season’s first two engage Super League matches with a leg injury.

Sculthorpe is back in contention only a week after his coach expressed concern over the loose forward’s protracted rehabilitation.

Anderson revealed Sculthorpe had “hit a plateau” in his recovery from Achilles surgery and was “stuck at 70 to 80%”.

Today Anderson said: “He’s up to 90% and he’s in the 20-man squad. We won’t know more until he’s done some team sessions.”

Meanwhile, Anderson revealed today hooker Keiron Cunningham was selected on the bench for the first two matches after falling behind training due to a catalogue of accidents last month.

Rising star James Roby moved ahead of the former Great Britain international in the pecking order after he was involved in a road accident in which his car was written off.

“He was out of training for 17 days with whiplash and minor injuries,” said Anderson.

“He also had emergency dental surgery about a week into the new year and he was putting together one of those whizz-bang toys after Christmas when his knee locked and he had knee surgery.

“So he’s had an absolutely shocking January. We hardly saw him. He’s behind the training times but he’s slowly getting his fitness back. He looks in good shape but his fitness levels are nowhere near what they would normally be.

“It was forced on us that Robes would start but Keiron is starting to get his way back in and we’ll see him in the starting line-up soon.

“They will probably do a 50-50 share this year. Robes needs that for his development and Keiron is aware of that and has encouraged it.”