By Michael Hale
St Helens head coach Keiron Cunningham has said he won’t be signing any new players despite key injuries in his squad.
The club announced yesterday that Tommy Makinson is likely to miss the rest of the 2016 season with the anterior cruciate ligament injury he picked up in Saints’ 20-12 win at Widnes Vikings.
Morgan Knowles has been recalled to Cunningham’s 19-man squad to face Hull FC tonight but the head coach doesn’t believe there is much talent that he could bring to Langtree Park.
“There’s literally nothing out there as you’ve seen with Huddersfield (Giants), Paul (Anderson) has been missing outside backs all year and they’ve got a couple of key injuries.
“It’s a very small (player) pool and you’re certainly not going to pull a big fish out of it so sometimes you’ve got to shoot with your own kids. We work hard on our juniors so when push comes to shove we’ve got faith in our kids.”
Saints came second in the regular Super League season last year but sit four points behind joint Super League leaders Warrington Wolves and Wigan Warriors ahead of this weekend’s games.
Cunningham is confident however that his side can pick up the sort of form that saw them finish in the top four of last year’s Super 8s.
“We’ve got a pretty decent pack and we’ve got a very capable back line with some players who have played lots of rugby.
“Once we start getting a few of those boys back like when we get Percy (Mark Percival) and Jonny (Lomax) we’ll come good with everybody.”
St Helens can move joint third tonight with a win over Hull FC.
