St Helens coach Keiron Cunningham has revealed that full-back Jonny Lomax has suffered another setback in his quest to return to playing, although he insists that this time the injury is not to his knee.
Lomax has not played for over a year after suffering a serious knee injury last March, and has only played a handful of games in the last two years.
But whilst Cunningham stressed that Lomax’s knee is fit and raring to go, he did confirm that another injury means he is not ready to return, with League Express understanding it to be a minor ankle issue.
“Jonny isn’t fit yet; we were hoping he’d be fit for the end of March but things took a turn for the worse,” he conceded.
“We’ll just play it week by week with him. There are other issues for Jonny; this problem isn’t regarding his knee, because we’re completely there with the knee and that’s spot on.
“We’ve just got to tidy this other area up for him and then he’ll be ready to go.”
Cunningham admitted to being disappointed that he has not been able to call on the services of Lomax so far this year, but stressed that it’s far more important to not rush the 25-year-old back too soon.
“It’s a long old season and whilst I’d love him to be running round immediately because he’d help my team no end, we’ve got to be patient.
“He’ll be ready when he’s ready; I’m desperate for him to be back, but we can’t force it.”
