George Williams ruled out of England's Test with Samoa
Saturday 29 April 2017 23:37, UK
England stand-off George Williams has been ruled out of next Saturday's Test match against Samoa with a knee injury sustained in Wigan's 54-4 Super League defeat at Castleford.
Williams was due to fly out to Sydney on Sunday, along with Wigan team-mate and England captain Sean O'Loughlin plus the three-man Castleford contingent, to link up with the rest of the players ahead of the mid-season international.
But he will now stay behind and undergo scans to determine the extent of his injury.
O'Loughlin aggravated a groin injury in the game, in which Wales international prop Ben Flower sustained a suspected ruptured Achilles tendon, but will be able to catch the flight to Sydney, according to Wigan and England doctor Chris Brooks.
Williams failed to reappear for the second half of the game at the Men-a-Hose Jungle and Wigan coach Shaun Wane said: "George has done something to his knee.
"He'll get it scanned tomorrow. I doubt he'll be able to catch the flight, he can't walk."
Brooks explained: "We had to take George Williams off the field because it was clear he was struggling with his knee towards the end of the first half.
"As he tried to run he was okay in terms of getting his speed up, but when he tried to decelerate, that's when he was having the pain in his knee.
"We wondered if he had caught the edge of his cartilage. We examined him at half-time and the structure of his knee is fine, his ligaments seem fine. But unfortunately he won't be able to represent England next week, which is very disappointing because he's very proud of his involvement in the England team.
There are no excuses from us about personnel, Wigan teams don't get pumped like that at Castleford.
"Sean O'Loughlin was struggling with his groin a little bit going into the game. He completed the game and was cramping up more than getting problems.
"We've assessed him and the tightness has gone now. There is no evidence of a tear in his groin and he's going to go off and take part in the England set-up."
Body blow
The loss of Williams is a body blow to England coach Wayne Bennett, especially after his first-choice stand-off Gareth Widdop was ruled out this week, also with a knee injury.
Warrington's utility back Stefan Ratchford was called up as a replacement for Widdop but whether Bennett will be able to find a new half-back at short notice remains to be seen.
Wigan also lost centre Anthony Gelling (knee) and forwards Taulima Tautai (neck) and Ryan Sutton (ankle) in their heaviest Super League defeat by the Tigers.
Little went right for Wigan, who also lost scrum-half Thomas Leuluai earlier in the week with a broken jaw and had two players, Frank-Paul Nuuausala and Morgan Escare sin-binned during their heaviest defeat of the season but Wane refused to make any excuses.
"It's not acceptable," he said. "They were too good for us. There are no excuses from us about personnel, Wigan teams don't get pumped like that at Castleford.
"The players are hurting. We got absolutely schooled. We need to have a real positive week and bounce back for Salford."
Castleford's trio of England players all emerged unscathed after contributing heavily to their team's nine-try rout, which enabled them to complete the double over the champions.
Scrum-half Luke Gale, concussed in the Tigers' defeat at Hull last Sunday, failed a head test on Friday but retook it on Saturday morning and passed, much to the relief of coach Daryl Powell.
Gale went on to contribute 20 points with eight goals and a try while second rower Mike McMeeken, who is set to win his first cap next Saturday, and full-back Zak Hardaker also impressed as Castleford returned to the top of the table in style.
Live Betfred Super League
The victory topped the Yorkshire club's previous biggest win over Wigan, a 42-14 success in 2015, while Powell rated Saturday's victory as better than their 66-10 rout of Leeds earlier this year.
"Leeds were missing a lot of players that night," said Powell. "Wigan had as well but they've got a deep squad and the players they had out there were high quality so for us to be as good as we were is pleasing.
"I didn't expect us to get away from Wigan like that. We started the game so positively and defensively we were on the money so I'm obviously delighted with the way the players went about their work.
"I thought they were superb from start to finish. It was tough for them losing a couple of blokes and, when they were down to 12, we hit them pretty hard and executed pretty well.
"Mike McMeeken was unbelievable tonight; that was the best I've seen him play for us. I think he's shown a statement of intent for next weekend."
Castleford lost stand-off Ben Roberts to injury in the first half and Powell says he is unlikely to be fit for next Thursday's game at Huddersfield, which is live on Sky Sports.
