Cunningham ruled out

Cunningham: Quadricep tear

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• Keiron Cunningham

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St Helens have suffered yet more injury woe after veteran hooker Keiron Cunningham was ruled out for six to eight weeks with a badly-torn quadricep.

The 31-year-old former Great Britain international sustained the tear, which measures 11 centimetres in length and is five centimetres deep, during Saints' 30-29 win over Hull at Knowsley Road last Friday.

Cunningham therefore misses Saturday's trip to play Catalans Dragons - the first time during Daniel Anderson's three seasons at the club he has been absent through injury.

And, given his player's predicament, it's a situation the coach readily accepts.

"Matt Gidley said he didn't think his quad was as big as Keiron's tear," Anderson said.

"He's confounded the medical staff here and even the gentleman at Liverpool who did the ultrasound said he had never seen a tear that size before.

"He got word to the bench in the second half that his leg was blowing up while he was playing.

"He couldn't bend his knee and said he had to come off. He's never done that before so we knew there was something going on."

Cunningham, who has made 414 appearances for Saints, also missed the team's trip to Perpignan in 2006 when Anderson rested virtually his entire Challenge Cup final team a week before the latter match.

Forwards set for return

The latest setback for the club comes with Paul Sculthorpe and Sean Long still on the sidelines, along with prop forwards Jason Cayless and Nick Fozzard.

However, back rowers Jon Wilkin and Chris Flannery are set to return from injury and prop Maurie Fa'asavalu is having the wire removed from his broken thumb on Tuesday.

Anderson will take all his remaining 20 players to France on Friday morning and hand the captaincy to full-back Paul Wellens.

"Chris Flannery trained yesterday and so he is the most likely to return and Jon Wilkin and Maurie have a chance of playing as well," Anderson added.

"We are taking every single fit player to Catalan. We don't have anyone else.

"If I lose another player now, someone is going to have to give up a day of work or come out of school, that's how light we are."

Nevertheless, Anderson is confident of having Long back for the Good Friday derby with Wigan.